Plastic Bag Ban Bad for Environment?
January 31, 2008
Posted by CindyC in : Communities , trackback
A local headline caught my eye on Wednesday.
Recycling Group: Oakland Plastic Bag Ban Hurts the Environment
Say what?
Apparently a group calling themselves The Coalition to Support Plastic Bag Recycling is suing to overturn the Oakland’s city law that prohibits large retailers (greater than $1 million in revenues) from using nonbiodegradable plastic bags. The Coalition claims that people will confuse compostable with regular plastic bags and this confusion will cause inefficiencies in the recycling progress. The Coalition also claims that Oakland did not do comprehensive impact studies prior to law passage and that more paper bag use can be more damaging. The plastic bag ban was supposed to take effect in February but now has been delayed pending the suit’s outcome.
Let’s take a step back here. First, although the idea of recycling is a nice one, the reality is less than ONE PERCENT of plastic bags are recycled and 100 BILLION of them are thrown away each year (1). These bags are littering our streets and sitting in landfills NOT biodegrading. Second, the paper or plastic argument is a futile one as neither side will ever concede. Nothing suggests people will use more paper bags when reusable options are now more popular and available. Whole Foods actually handed out free reusable bags when it announced its voluntary plan to eliminate plastic bag use by Earth Day 2008.
Lastly, let’s ask who is behind the Coalition to Support Plastic Bag Recycling. That would be plastic bag manufacturers and recyclers. Apparently, the Coalition filed this suit as a “preemptive strike” against other cities looking to follow San Francisco’s plastic ban. Last year, they successfully bullied city of Fairfax to make their plastic ban a voluntary one. Oakland vows to fight this suit and believes the ban is the right for any progressive city. (2)
For those Oakland readers out there, please use your canvas or reusable bags with pride and show them that this time bullies won’t win!
CindyC at Organicpicks
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Source:
(1) World Watch
(2) Complete story found at SfGate.com
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Comments»
It’s really unbelievable how people are not afraid to use words to mislead. And let’s be honest, here. Not only are plastic bags rarely recycled but, as we saw on Fake Plastic Fish’s video last month, plastic recycling is in China and leaves much to be desired. Ugg. Go Oakland!
Show support for Oakland’s bag ban, take this survey!
http://forums.insidebayarea.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=1&nav=messages&webtag=ib-oakland&tid=67
Who believes that a “coalition” working with the American Chemistry Council is motivated by environmental concerns? Maybe they want to postpone the ban and make it expensive for Oakland to go green? Perhaps they support recycling because their financial backers want to keep profiting from selling plastic bags and damaging our planet in the name of their personal gain? I was talking with my granny about the disposable bag crisis and she told me that “in my day people always brought their own bags.” When disposable bags were introduced, people stopped bringing their own. Now, people of good intention buy reusable grocery bags and, speaking from personal experience, we often leave them at home. Because of my forgetfulness, I’ve started packing around a reusable ChicoBag because I can stuff it into a tiny little sack that hangs on my backpack. It’s a life saver. Lucky for college students like me, it’s also inexpensive and can hold lots of text books and beverages
And one more thing, for entertainment and info about the bag crisis check out http://www.BagMonsterBusters.com.
Much like the auto companies, these organizations cannot seem to understand that the way to a vibrant future business is not through law suits, but through true innovation. Adapt and innovate instead of blocking progress.