Should we ban plastic bags?

In a number of southern Westchester communities, “BYOB” will have a new meaning, as in Bring-Your-Own-Bag to the store.

Should communities like Croton and Ossining ban plastic bags? Or place a fee on their use? Or require manufacturer “take back?”

The numbers involved in our ubiquitous disposable plastic shopping bags are staggering. According to the Product Policy Institute, American use about 100 billion plastic bags per year, or about 318 per person. The vast majority of those bags are used once–to carry a purchase home–and then tossed into the garbage.

While some jurisdictions have or are considering outright bans on the disposable bags, others are imposing a fee (e.g. 5 cents per bag). According to the Product Policy Institute, others are endorsing a "manufacturer "take-back" policy, in which stores must accept returned bags. Bioplastics are another option over fossil fuel based plastics.

The recycling myth

“Plastic bag and film recovery has increased 55 percent since 2005. Recovery of postconsumer film (which includes plastic bags and product wrap) grew to an estimated one billion pounds in 2011.” –American Chemistry Council (2011 report)

One billion pounds is only 454,545 tons. In other words, the vast majority of the plastic films stay in the waste stream, unrecovered. Only a small portion (8%) of disposable plastic bags are recycled. See Table 1 in EPA 2010 report.)  Of 31 million tons of plastic waste generated in the US in 2010, only 2.55 millions tons were recycled.

Oil and natural gas

Each ton of recycled plastic bags saves the energy equivalent of 11 barrels of oil, although most bags are produced from natural-gas-derived stock.

In short, our plastic bag behavior translates into throwing away about 341 million barrels a year (or about 59 gallons of oil per US resident).  Each barrel is 55 gallons.. Of course, disposable bags are only one of the many different kinds of plastic film waste.

Litter

Plastic bags cause urban and suburban blight. The bags that don’t make it home are tossed on the side of the road, or are so light that they literally blow out of trash containers or sanitation trucks. Once free, they become durable “plastic flowers” along our roadsides,

Wildlife

Plastic bags kill marine life. Worse than becoming airborne, plastic bags eventually become blockages in our storm drains and, eventually, water borne in our streams and rivers. There they break down and are consumed by fish and shell-fish.

Waste

There is a direct correlation between the amount of packaging the consumers bring home and the amount of solid waste that the local public works crews collect each week. Municipal solid waste collection slowed down a bit since 2009, not because manufacturers or distributors used less packaging, but mainly because consumers bought less stuff in the grips of the recession. 

But, now, with the economy slowly picking up steam, we can expect the cost of solid waste collection to rise once again.

Market transformation

A number of high profile retailers have voluntarily moved away from disposable plastic bags, e.g. Whole Foods, IKEA.  More and more local markets make available their own durable, reusable shopping bags.

Should we leave these questions to the marketplace? Or should we give the marketplace some explicit signals about the value of reducing pollution, waste, and litter?