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SIDE EFFECTS OF SINGLE-USE PLASTIC BAG BAN
Ximan Wu
Dr. Richard Matzen
WRIT112: Essay three
November 13, 2014
Side Effects of Single-use Plastic Bag Ban
Introduction
Perhaps one of the greatest inventions of human kind in contemporary history is singleuse plastic bags, the bags that make shopping and transportation of goods a lot easier. Yet, as
demand for single-use plastic bag ban increased with population, people began to realize the
environmental problems that arise with single-use plastic bags, such as the long decomposing
period for these bags and pollution that came along with the disposal of these bags. As a result,
the Californian Governor signed SB 270, making California the first state to prohibit stores from
providing free single-use plastic bags effective July, 2015 for large chain stores and January,
2016 for all the stores. (Steinmetz, 2014)
Of course, Californians’ reaction to this bill is bipolar. Environmentalists cheer for
Governor Jerry Brown for signing this bill, while those who hold opposing view or use these
single-use plastic bags for other purposes, such as myself, gloom the Governor’s decision. In this
essay, I will discuss the problems this bill brings, such as the negative effects on the environment
and performance inefficiency of alternative options, and then offer some feasible solutions:
requiring consumers to reuse their plastic bags as trash bags, manufactures to incorporate
biodegradable technology to these disposable shopping bags and government to build
corresponding facilities to facilitate these biodegradable bags.
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SIDE EFFECTS OF SINGLE-USE PLASTIC BAG BAN
The Problem
According to European Plastic News (2008), a news source for European plastic industry,
single-use plastic bags can be dated as early as the 1950s, but at that time, single-use plastic bags
were for industrial use instead of to be used by consumers to carry groceries home. Popularity of
single-use plastic bags bloomed after 1965, after Swedish engineer Sten Gustaf Thulin designed
and manufactured the world’s first lightweight and durable single-use plastic bags. (EPN, 2008)
Some people blame Thulin for his invention that ended up polluting Earth’s precious water
sources and endangering countless organisms living in those bodies of water, others praise him
for making grocery shopping and transportation of goods easier. As a result, Governor Jerry
Brown signed SB 270 on September 30, 2014 and made California the first state to ban plastic
bags.
The major argument from the ban supporters is that banning single-use plastic bags will
help protect the environment, but it is not true. According to the 2011 United Kingdom’s
Environment Agency report Life Cycle Assessment of Supermarket Carrier Bags: a review of the
bags available in 2006, “the environmental impact of all types of carrier bag is dominated by
resource use and production stages… end-of-life management generally have a minimal
influence on their performance.” (UK Environment Agency [EA], 2011) This means that
however people choose to dispose of the single-use plastic bags do not affect the environment as
much as the production process, as equivalent amount of pollutions are made to make alternative
options. As well, in order to prep the materials to make paper bags, chemicals must be used to
process both recycled paper and raw materials; these chemicals often find their way into the
environment, damaging the environment and the ecosystems within, and that is not the effect pro
plastic banners are looking for.
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SIDE EFFECTS OF SINGLE-USE PLASTIC BAG BAN
Furthermore, banning plastic bags will force consumers to switch to paper bags, which
will intensify global warming. As seen from the 2010 Los Angeles County Draft Environmental
Impact Report- Ordinance to Ban Plastic Carryout Bags in Los Angeles County, around 85% of
Californians would switch to paper bags instead of buying their own reusable grocery bags, as
seen from cities that banned single-use plastic bags already, such as San Francisco. The switch
from disposal plastic bags to paper bags would also contribute to global warming by producing
equivalent amount of greenhouse gases as having 550,000 more cars on the road annually.
(County of Los Angeles Department of Public Works [DPW], 2010) This government report
indicates that majority of the population in California would choose to buy paper bags every time
they go to the stores instead of choosing the method the government wants Californians to
choose, which would produce more pollution and exacerbate global warming and ultimately,
harm the environment we are trying to protect.
In addition to worsening existing pollutions, studies also suggest single-use plastic bags
are more sustainable than using paper bags or plastic multi-use shopping bags. According to
Environment Agency’s report, “the reuse of conventional HDPE and other lightweight carrier
bags (single-use plastic bags) for shopping and/ or as bin-liners is pivotal to their environmental
performance and reuse as bin liners produces greater benefits than recycling bags.” (EA, 2011)
Yet, in my survey, 80% of the surveyed answered they recycle their single-use plastic bags while
only 20% of the surveyed answered they use those bags as trash bags. We are taught to reduce,
reuse, and recycle for all recyclable materials, but for single-use plastic bags, we should try to
reuse them to their full potential. The fact that people choose to recycle these single-use plastic
bags instead of reuse them as trash bags is the biggest contributor to the problem.
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SIDE EFFECTS OF SINGLE-USE PLASTIC BAG BAN
In compliance with the Environment Agency report, an investigation done by Wall Street
Journal six years later also indicates that “…average supermarket shoppers would have to reuse
the same multi-use bags from 94 up to 1,889 times before it had less environmental impact than
the disposable plastic bags needed to carry the same amount of groceries.” (Agresti, 2012) This
means an average person must use his or her reusable shopping bag at least 94 times in order to
balance the bag’s environmental impact, which is impossible as those reusable bags are often
broken or thrown away before they reach their targeted breakeven point.
As seen from the two governmental research, banning single-use plastic bags is not the
way to protect the environment; switching from single-use plastic to other materials requires
more resources to manufacture and produces more pollution, and the way people dispose their
single-use plastic bags are not environmental friendly nor sustainable at all.
Solution
The problem with the plastic bag ban is that it is not going to return the desired result we
look for. Therefore, I propose two solutions to reduce environmental impact of single-use plastic
bags: encourage Californians to reuse the existing single-use plastic bags as trash bags and
requiring manufactures to incorporate single-use plastic bags to be made of biodegradable
materials and have corresponding facilities to properly treat these materials.
My first solution is simple: educate and encourage Californians to reuse the existing
single-use plastic bags. One way for this solution to work is to encourage Californians to reuse
their single-use plastic bags as trash bags. Californians buy rolls of big plastic trash bags at
grocery stores in order to dispose of their trash; these big plastic trash bags are built thicker and
require longer time to degrade and be decomposed compared to single-use plastic bags. Since the
major problem with plastic bags is their long decomposing and degrading period, using thinner
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SIDE EFFECTS OF SINGLE-USE PLASTIC BAG BAN
and smaller single-use plastic bags that are easier to degrade and decompose would be a good
way to reduce pollution and environmental impact of plastic bags.
Another benefit of reusing single-use plastic bags as trash bags is it avoids the necessity
of producing trash bags. For instance, as seen in Table 1, the average amount of plastic bags
consumed per family in 4 trips to the grocery store is 60 bags per household. In four trips, an
average household would have 60 single-use plastic bags to use as trash bags; by using these 60
grocery bags as trash bags, the need for rolls of big plastic trash bags will be eliminated, less
resources will be used, which will also reduce the pollutions occurred during the manufacturing
process of large trash bags.
Plastic Statistics
Total number of plastic bags used worldwide annually
1 trillion
Total number of plastic bags China consumes everyday
3 billion
Total number of plastic bags used every minute
1 million
Total number of years it takes for a plastic bag to degrade
1,000 years
Total amount of plastic bags that were discarded in 2008
3.5 million tons
Total amount of plastic floating in every square mile of ocean
46,000 pieces
Average amount of plastic bags consumed per family in 4 trips to the grocery
store
60
Percent of plastic made every year that will end up in the ocean
10%
Total amount of plastic bags used by U.S. citizens every year
100 billion
Average amount of plastic bottles a U.S. household will use each year
500 plastic bottles
Percent of household waste that is plastic
Table 1: Plastic usage statistics around the world (Earth 911, 2012)
11%
My second solution to solve the problems of plastic bag ban is requiring manufactures to
produce plastic bags that are biodegradable or self-degradable, as these materials are easier to
degrade and do not pose as a threat to the environment compared to non-biodegradable materials
and majority of the people recycle their disposal plastic bags instead of reusing them. For
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SIDE EFFECTS OF SINGLE-USE PLASTIC BAG BAN
instance, I once left my empty self-degradable Slurpee cup with lid on in my room under direct
sunlight; when I was cleaning my room a month later I noticed the cup had begun its degrading
process but there was no sign of residuals anywhere. Similar technology and materials can be
used to manufacture plastic bags, making the bags not a threat to the environment anymore.
Furthermore, currently there is no biodegradable plastic treatment plant in Los Angeles that can
treat biodegradable plastic. (DPW, 2010) To match the recycling habits of the majority
population, I believe corresponding facilities should be built.
Some people believe the disposal of plastic bags is the major contributor to the plastic
pollutions, and I believe reusing disposal bags as trash bags and switching from nonbiodegradable and non-self-degradable plastic bags to biodegradable bags would solve the
disposal problem.
Conclusion
Banning plastic bags may seem like the solution to the problem of plastic bag pollution,
but advocates of such ban ignore the fact that compared to the alternate solutions they proposed,
such as switching to multi-use grocery bags or paper bags, single-use plastic bags is still the most
efficient way of resource use and the most sustainable way of finding the balance between
convenience and environment protection. SB 270, the bill Governor Brown signed to force
people to switching to multi-use bags or paper bags will have unintended consequences, such as
intensification of global warming and pollution. As a result, I propose two alternative solutions
to the problems the plastic bag ban brings: reuse these disposable bags as trash bags, and
incorporating biodegradable or self-degradable technology in the disposal bags as well as
building corresponding facilities to accommodate these new bags.
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SIDE EFFECTS OF SINGLE-USE PLASTIC BAG BAN
Let us solve the problem of plastic pollution from the root, not by creating another
problem or intensifying existing environmental concerns like SB 270 does.
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SIDE EFFECTS OF SINGLE-USE PLASTIC BAG BAN
References
Aggarwal, P., Agrawal, R., & Damija, P. (n.d.). Interactive Environmental Educatiaon Book VIII
(Vol. 8). Pitambar Publishing.
Agresti, J. (2012, June 15). Bans on Plastic Bags Harm the Environment. Retrieved November
13, 2014, from
http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303822204577468790467880880
County of Los Angeles Department of Public Works. (2010). ORDINANCES TO BAN
PLASTIC CARRYOUT BAGS IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY DRAFT
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT.
Earth 911. (2012, April 21). Plastic Bag Statistics. Retrieved November 13, 2014, from
http://www.statisticbrain.com/plastic-bag-statistics/
Edwards, C., & Fry, J. (2011). Life cycle assessment of supermarket carrier bags: A review of
the bags available in 2006. Evidence.
European Plastics News. (2008, September 26). Retrieved November 10, 2014, from
http://www.europeanplasticsnews.com/subscriber/newscat2.html?cat=&channel=500&id
=1222446525
Steinmetz, K. (2014, September 30). California Becomes First State to Ban Plastic Bags.
Retrieved November 10, 2014, from http://time.com/3449887/california-plastic-bag-ban/