.^
DEBATE
Ba^atUe^
Should
towns ban
plastic bags?
E
very summer, residents of
Long Beach, Calif., crowd
the beaches, hoping to enjoy the
sun, sand, and surf. The beaches
aren't filled with just sunbathers,
though—they're also littered with
dirty plastic bags.
To reduce pollution, the Long
Beach City Council recently passed
a ban on plastic sacks. The ordinance, introduced by Vice Mayor
Suja Lowenthal, requires supermarkets, convenience stores, and
pharmacies to stop providing plastic bags. It also requires stores to
charge 10 cents for each paper sack.
The ban goes into effect this July.
Long Beach, in Los Angeles County, is not the only California city to
can plastic bags. San Jose and Manhattan Beach recently passed similar proposals, and Sunnyvale hopes
to pass one by the end of the year.
Not everyone feels sunny about
the bag bans. Some organizations
argue banning plastic means people will rely more on paper, which
might be worse for the environment because it is made from trees.
Should plastic sacks be bagged?
Here are the arguments being
checked out on both sides.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Should towns ban plastic bags?
Is it fair to charge people for
paper sacks? Why or why not?
Let us know at
edce@weeklyieadei.com.
Banning plastic bags would just
cause other environmental problems, says the Save The Plastic Bag
Coalition. People would use more
paper bags, the group argues, which
would increase deforestation. And
manufacturing paper bags produces
greenhouse gases.
"Banning plastic carryout bags in
Los Angeles alone would have the
same annual impact on greenhouse
gas emissions as adding between
PAPER: SAFER
THAN PLASTIC
Plastic bags are hurting marine life,
some experts argue. The bags are
light, so they are easily carried by
the wind and end up in the ocean.
"Whales and large birds often
swallow plastic carryout bags inadvertently during feeding, which
become permanently lodged in the
stomach," L.A. County's Department of Public Works states on its
Web site.
Plastic bag litter also strains the
city's budget. Long Beach officials
27,753 and 63,832 passenger
vehicles," the group's Web site states.
Plastic bags might also be better
for your health than reusable fabric
ones, some people argue. At a Long
Beach town hall meeting, teacher
Richard Reid said reusable bags
could contain harmful chemicals
in the paints used on the designs.
Another resident said that dirty
reusable bags could breed bacteria.
Besides, not all plastic bags go to
waste, some consumers point out.
People reuse the bags for bringing
lunch to work or cleaning up after
their dogs. Many stores across the
country collect bags for recycling.
If people forget to bring their own
bags to the store, some shoppers
argue, they shouldn't be punished
by having to pay for paper ones.
say. The city spends millions of dollars each year cleaning up marine
debris, including plastic bags. And
when beaches begin to look like
landfills, the tourism industry is
negatively affected. There is "lost
revenue associated with people's
perception of the city's beaches
and shoreline, which affects our
economic development, recreation,
and tourism," the government of
Long Beach stated in a news release.
Recycling isn't helping the situation, say proponents of bag bans. In
the United States, less than 5 percent of plastic bags are recycled, and
more than 380 billion are thrown
away every year, according to Don't
Trash California. Some experts say
trashing all those bags wastes oil
and other fossil fuels used to make
the plastic.
weeklyreader.com
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