Memorandum
To: Krista Soria
From: Gabriel Esposito and Raine Becker
Date: March 11, 2013
Subject: Progress Report
Purpose
The purpose of this memorandum is to provide you with a progress report regarding my research
for the feasibility project. In this memo I will provide you with research we have done, our
methods for doing so, and evaluate whether our research will be relevant.
Summary
We have been researching whether it is feasible for UAA to reduce or erase completely the usage
of plastic bags on campus. Our research includes both secondary and primary research, but this
memo will detail only secondary. We have conducted research using the UAA Consortium
Library databases to locate some articles that will help with our research.
Our research has been going well, and using the references we will be able to complete our final
report by May 2nd. We will continue to gather information as well as more specifics on UAA’s
trash (and the results of our survey).
Introduction and Methodology
After submitting our proposal and having been approved, we decided to conduct research using
UAA’s online database as part of the Consortium Library, looking for published articles and
books.
Searching through the “Web of Science” database found in UAA’s APU Climate Change source
guide, we used terms like “plastic” and “waste” which gave us broad results. We had about 200
results to sift through, so narrowing it further, we added terms “reusable,” “sustainability,” and
“environmental impact.” This gave us much more specific results, about 40 papers to go through.
We ended up getting sources we could use from this search. We also searched databases like
“GreenFILE” and “GeoRef” with the same terms which did not produce useable results. So far,
only 4 sources that we have found have been applicable to our study because others were too
specific in their research.
We evaluated our sources based on whether or not they involved plastic bags, and if they had any
data that might be relevant to their impact on the environment. We also looked for sources that
pertained specifically to Alaska and the effects of climate change to the Alaskan environment.
We came across studies that compared the usage of plastic and biodegradable bags. Finally, we
included a study that relates municipal solid waste and the environment.
We decided to use research that involved environmental impact and climate change because
there were results supporting our study, saying that the production, usage, and disposal of plastic
results in negative environmental impacts which have been found to contribute to climate change.
Results of Research
We will discuss our completed work, which are the references mentioned in this report. We will
also briefly detail our future research efforts.
Completed Work
After narrowing down our search to find articles that we could use, we found 4
articles that we could use in our study. In a study titled Environmental impacts of
conventional plastic and bio-based carrier bags, we found that “The highest end-of-life
impacts are observed from the land filling of bio-bags. Next highest disposal impacts are
from incineration, and least of all (minimal) from the composting of bio-bags.” (Hsien
and Reginald, 2010). This will help us establish the fact in our study that both plastic and
bio-plastic bags are harmful.
We found another study titled Mineralization and distribution of nutrients in plants and
microbes in four arctic ecosystems: responses to warming. This study would help us to
explain results of plastic bags (warming) in an Alaskan environment and help us to better
understand the impact on Anchorage. According to Schmidt et. al. (2002), plants in
northern climates had difficulty growing due to root suffocation from minerals as a result
of plastic found in the ground.
A third study that we found would be useful is Municipal Solid Waste and the
Environment: A Global Perspective. This study provides information relating to waste
management techniques in cities like Anchorage and how they can be challenging to
adapt to more environmentally-friendly methods. It also details how improperly managed
waste can affect the environment. “Improperly managed waste can affect the environment
at different scales.” (Vergara and Tchobanoglous, 2012)
Future Work
We hope to explore the resources that UAA’s physical library has to offer, as well
as take another look at the online databases offered. We are also looking for more
information on UAA’s impact on Anchorage’s municipal garbage management, as well
as what effect Anchorage’s waste management has on surrounding areas. We are also
looking for the costs of UAA’s “choose to reuse” program so we can evaluate our
program for giving students cloth bags. Finally, we would like to find the how much it
costs UAA to stock campus stores with plastic and bio-plastic bags. We may have to find
this information from other resources instead of formal studies available through UAA’s
Consortium Library. Once we have all of this information, we will be able to use it to
understand the feasibility of our project much better.
Conclusion
Though we were able to find some resources through the UAA Consortium Library databases,
we are still having difficulty understanding the scale and implications of not only how plastic
bags affect UAA but also some of the finer details in our alternative “cloth bag” program. The
research we have gathered has been very helpful, however. We also hope to gain insight from
our primary research methods, though this isn’t mentioned in this report.
References
Listed below are the references we have located so far.
Accinelli, C., Saccà, M. L., Mencarelli, M., & Vicari, A. (2012). Deterioration of bioplastic
carrier bags in the environment and assessment of a new recycling
alternative. Chemosphere, 89(2), 136-143. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2012.05.028
Vergara, S. E., & Tchobanoglous, G. (2012). Municipal solid waste and the environment: A
global perspective. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 37(1), 277-309. doi:
10.1146/annurev-environ-050511-122532
Schmidt, I. K., Jonasson, S., Shaver, G. R., Michelsen, A., & Nordin, A. (2002).
Mineralization and distribution of nutrients in plants and microbes in four arctic
ecosystems: Responses to warming.
Plant and Soil, 242(1), 93-106. doi: 10.1023/A:1019642007929
Khoo, H., & Tan, R. H. (2010). Environmental impacts of conventional plastic and bio-based
carrier bags.
The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 15(4), 338-345. doi:
10.1007/s11367-010-0163-8