As we all know, in March 2013, the City of Austin banned plastic shopping bags. Plastic bags are one of the most common items in everyday life, so for many of us, it was inconvenient. For me, it just meant that I now have to spend money on purchasing plastic bags instead of receiving them for free at any local store. Banning the plastic shopping bags made many people in Austin angry, including me. Plastic bags were used for many important things like cleaning up dog waste, garbage bags, and groceries. Banning plastic bags only means the use of paper bags which means cutting more trees! People are now forced to spend money on buying paper and cotton bags and guess what, more taxes! The government also has to spend more money on providing the use of paper and cotton bags. If it costs more money why do it? The majority of people in Austin that use plastic bags reuse them. Reusable and paper alternatives cost a lot more money as well as the environment to manufacture. Plastic bags may have a negative impact when they are disposed of incorrectly, but at least trees do not need to be axed to make them. Unlike paper bags, plastic bags do not destroy the environment before they are even sold or given away to the public. Austin needs to enforce the reuse of plastic bags, not ban them. Why ban when we can control? It cost way more money to make paper bags than plastic! If we are trying to save the environment, how are we saving it by killing trees and using paper?
I personally thought the plastic ban was a very positive thing. Plastic takes thousands of years to degrade, and even with the strictest recycling policies it would be impossible to recycle every plastic bag. Additionally, in terms of grocery shopping, there is no need for plastics bags. Reusable canvas bags can be brought to the store with minimal effort, not to mention you would actually spend less money in the long term since you are no longer buying bags everyday.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of the government "raising taxes" in order to pay for cotton and paper bags, I can really on see this as a positive. Would you rather see mounds of plastic bags in town lake, downtown, and zilker. Or pay a couple dollars more and have a cleaner city. In regards to "plastic bags do not destroy the environment before they are even sold", plastic is actually petroleum based therefore the production of plastic does propagate pollution inducing practices. While paper bags do require trees, trees are a renewable resource, unlike oil.
Essentially my questions are, does the inconvenience of not having plastic bags really outweigh the positives of less pollution. I also don't understand the relation between higher taxes and paper/cotton bags. It seems to me that the budget could easily incorporate the price of plastic bags into paper/cotton.
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ReplyDeleteNot even a few decades ago, it was normal to bring bags to a store instead of receiving plastic bags. Of course plastic bags are convenient, as pointed out in “Plastic Bag Ban Bad”, and the ones we received in stores are very cheap in production, but there is no denying that they are bad for the environment.
ReplyDeleteObviously, the city has regulated the use of those thin and cheap plastic bags. It regulated the use of them as extreme as possible. The city of Austin banned the bags. In banning the bags they found a way to bring less plastic into circulation. The problem is that the regulation of plastic bag use and plastic bag recycling in our society hasn't worked so far, and there is no reason to believe that it will work any time soon. There are laws concerning these bags. One example is, that people are supposed to throw them into the trash or recycle them which often isn't happening. This is obvious if we just look at the garbage patches in the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. In those patches, collections of plastic pollute big parts of the oceans. They fall into pieces, but don't disappear since plastic isn't compostable. This causes a huge problem for animals and plants.
Paper bags don't bring such a big issue to the environment as mentioned in “Plastic Bag Ban Bad”. To produce paper bags, no new trees are cut. They are made of recycled paper. Also if those are tossed into the ocean, they dissolve pretty easily, which of course doesn't mean that we should do that.
The whole purpose in cotton bags is to reuse them. So you buy two or however many you need for one shopping trip, and then you bring them back the next time you go shopping. That's a one time investment! And I cannot see the higher taxes to a one time investment.
The environment is killed more by plastic bags in the ocean, than by the production of recycled paper bags. To use those plastic bags for trash and other things, it is probably best to use plastic bags that can be composted.
There are some very valid points when discussing the issues behind plastic bag ordinance in Austin in this commentary but here is where I disagree.
ReplyDeleteI do not think the cost of plastic bags vs. the cost of paper bags is the issue in which the ordinance is combating. The main issue is plastics come from oil. This ordinance is one of the first steps of many in conserving oil until a new resource, which has as versatile an impact as oil, is discovered or manufactured. It is used in plastics, in cars and bags, to pesticides, and fuel in vehicles from tractors, boats airplanes and automobiles. Fossil fuels take eons to create, and the best way to recreate this “gold” still takes too long and cannot meet the consumer demand of the global population.
Another point in argument is that the lack in plastic bag production has cost the 4500 jobs, might very well be true. On the other hand, I think these jobs were already at risk, not due to any other product but due to health concerns. Some information available to the public notes health concerns which stem from even handling plastics much less being in the lab which makes these products!
If everyone recycles then we would not have an issue with plastic bags destroying the environment, but to say everyone remembers to recycle, and then goes out of their way to do so is a tall tale.
I despise the ordinance as well. Paying for bags because I forgot mine at home again! But then I put it into perspective and then appreciate what is trying to be accomplished.