Do Bag Bans Work?
Opponents of bag bans say that reusable bags and recycling efforts are more effective in reducing waste and litter. Photo: Flickr/adav
The jury is still out.
San Francisco made history when it became the first city to officially ban plastic shopping bags in 2007, making it a pioneer of the outlawing of common to-go plastic products. Other cities in the Bay Area, including Oakland and Palo Alto, shortly followed suit.
However, the bans continue to cause controversy, as their effectiveness in reducing litter and waste are being evaluated.
According to the New York Times, cities are reconsidering the bans, partly because of lawsuits filed by those who oppose them, “but also because too many shoppers in San Francisco and Palo Alto simply shifted their carry-out purchases to paper sacks, which have environmental costs of their own.”
This transition is a subject of debate for both supporters and opponents of the bans.
“There has been a shift back to paper bags, which is double the greenhouse gas emissions, and dramatically increases waste by about 80 percent,” says Keith Christman, managing director of plastics markets for the American Chemistry Council (ACC), who opposes bag bans.
“One of the reasons people talk about bans is to reduce litter, but this didn’t do anything to reduce litter. And it really didn’t do anything to address this.”
The issue is highly divisive, with the Oakland ban already overturned because it was found that the city failed to consider evidence of the plastic bag ban’s potentially significant adverse effects.
Bob Lilienfeld, editor of the Use Less Stuff Report (ULS), says that he had reached similar conclusions in his own research that bag bans are ineffective, and told Earth911 that “the issue isn’t paper versus plastic, but rather an overabundance of any bags.”
Lilienfeld looks to bring “personal responsibility” back into the discussion. “If people only took the bags they needed, and reused and recycled those rather than throwing them away or on the ground, the issue would take care of itself,” he said.
Read More:
San Jose Says ‘Paper Nor Plastic’
Inside Plastic Bans
The Big Issue: Plastic Bags
As of June 17th 2011 we have upgraded our comment system to use Facebook comments.
The below comments are closed and are listed for historical purposes.
Krister
posted on May 26th, 2010 at 4:29 am
Interesting article. I think the points about too many of any bag is important to focus on. I would think it is relevent to put in the over abundance of reusable bags as well. I think in our house we have an over abundance of reusables and a balance of plastic and a few paper.
Reusable bag are now synonymous with conventions and promotions. The only question is, “where do you go to recycle them?” I mean when you get a surplus reusable bag is it even a “reusable” of you simply get rid of it?
In our house we occasionally do use reusable bag (more for guilt than anything). Some times we note we have a surplus ball of bags in the pantry so we take them store and put them in the recycling point. But mostly we use plastic bags because we have a young one in diapers and a retriever so we reuse most of our bags…I guess the thought of a ban really does make me stop and think what would life be like if there was a ban… The irony would be that some weeks I would be putting “bags” on my shopping list.
So would a ban achieve anything in our case…well since we aren’t littering I don’t think so, seems a bit much.
Sue
posted on May 26th, 2010 at 9:17 am
Hello Jennifer,
Great article! In the beginning when paper bags were being phased out; I could already see
the implications. First off, many people don’t recycle the bags they use at the supermarkets.
I can only imagine how many plastic bags are being tossed out. I, on the other hand, always
take an extra five minutes before doing my grocery shopping to recycle the plastic bags. I’ve
received a lot of negative vibes from people around me who think it’s a complete waste of
time. I don’t and will continue to make the effort until some other solution is found.
Banning the bags is only half the solution, tho.
P.S. I don’t think going back to paper bags is going to help the environment either since more trees need to be chopped down to create those bags in the first place.
Katherine
posted on May 26th, 2010 at 10:20 am
I studied abroad in Dublin in 2004 and there was a 10 cent fee on plastic bags. I don’t remember the exact figures of how well this impacted the decrease in plastic bag usage In Dublin/Ireland, but I do remember that it was often praised on the news and the the newspaper. I myself, the poor college student I was, started bringing my backpack and a cloth bag to the grocery store when I went. I definitely think it would make people think twice about using sometimes unecessary amounts of bags.
And I agree with the statement above, I have a small ‘collection’ of plastic bags that I used for smelly garbage or other things…but it’s definitely not a necessity.
Ken Eshelman
posted on May 26th, 2010 at 10:31 am
Is there another choice other than paper and plastic?
Crawling Critter
posted on May 26th, 2010 at 11:19 am
Most of the time when I go to the supermarket and do shopping I just get enough to fill my large backpack. I use that as a reuseable bag. I dont see what the problem is.
Also on the paper bag issue. Why not stop cutting down trees and make bags out of either hemp or corn husks? The latter would be better for letting them go back into the soil. Corn is already somethign we already use plenty of for various things. Im sure if they made thin corn husk bags that will degrade in the landfill it wont be a problem and wont have to worry abotu cutting down all those trees.
Or there are stores that produce GREEN plastic bags. Theyre the same plastic bags you use at the stores but when tossed out they will degrade back into the soil with sunlight since theyre made of bioproducts.
Steve
posted on May 26th, 2010 at 12:15 pm
Have you ever seen the end result of our use of plastic bags?
Last week I volunteered in the L.A. River cleanup campaign to remove debris along the river. What do you think comprised 99.9% of what we pulled out?
Plastic bags.
Bags that never decompose, clog waterways, harm wildlife, and are dispensed far too freely at retail outlets (usually for one-time-only use!).
The “paper vs. plastic” argument is a false one. The only people defending the use of plastic bags are…the plastic bag manufacturers!
Smart retailers are saving money by eliminating plastic bags and offering reusable bags for sale at a nominal cost. This encourages shoppers to bring their reusable canvas bags, and relieves them from having to recycle plastic bags (which occurs at very low rate, by the way).
Think this can’t work? Look at Costco– they package the items you buy in the cardboard boxes their products came in. This saves them from having to buy plastic bags, and reduces their trash.
The Shrimper
posted on May 26th, 2010 at 12:18 pm
Wow , a refreshing acknowledgment of the stupidity and futility of this continuing nanny-state, heavy-handed governemental intrusion into every aspect of peoples lives. The world is full of similar examples of the unintended consequences of these feel-good efforts, that ultimately do more harm than good.
That being said , it is encouraging that there seems to be some within governmental circles, to perhaps rethink these policies. Bob Lilienfeld hit it on the head…. “personal responsibility ” is where the true answer lies to most of these issues. This increasingly prevalent mindset that only government intervention is the solution has got to change.
Finally, let me say, that I do personally recycle all that I can, use reusable bags when I can, and believe we should do what we can to protect our little patch of the earth and utilize our resources effectively and wisely. Be responsible for your own actions and leave your path as you would like to find it.
Nina Butler
posted on May 27th, 2010 at 8:42 am
My concern with a ban is the loss of recovery options for recyclable film beyond plastic bags. Will stores continue to provide recycling bins for plastic bags, sacks and wraps if there is a ban on plastic bags? It’s not hard to use reusable bags, but our family still accumulates recyclable film items such as toilet paper wrap. Retail stores with the ability to collect and return scrap film and plastic bags to their distribution centers for baling provide a very efficient recovery method for a large portion of recyclable post-consumer plastic. There is strong demand for this material from domestic manufacturers.
Nina Butler
posted on May 27th, 2010 at 8:57 am
In my last post, I forgot to address the question about what to do with reusable bags. Reusable bags made out of Tyvek might be an attractive option. I like them because they’re really tiny so I always have one handy and then if it gets a hole or is no longer usable you can recycle with plastic grocery bags (if relatively clean and dry). I’ve had one for a couple of years and haven’t had to recycle yet.
Ken
posted on May 27th, 2010 at 10:23 am
Nina – I did a quick search, and found that Tyvek is recyclable, but even though it’s made of #2 polyethlene (like grocery bags), it can’t be recycled with them. Dupont does have a recycling program, but you need to mail stuff to them.
Steve – the bags you pulled off the beaches aren’t there because of bag manufacturers. They are there because people littered. Are you also advocating for the elimination of candy wrappers, cigarettes, fast food, and cans? I’m sure you found quite a bit of that as well.
Shefali
posted on May 27th, 2010 at 4:26 pm
Jennifer–
Thank you for this article–it is an important issue that I don’t think a lot of people consider. I am curious to know where this will lead; I think it is safe to say that generally, at most grocery stores, people do not “double bag” and choose paper over plastic (at least in the Bay Area). Now, I see people collecting those reusable bags and I am interested in finding out whether or not those bags are actually as eco-friendly as they seem? I work for a company called you Viv (doyouviv.com) and we sell all sorts of compostable and biodegradable products, including bags. Information like this is always useful and helpful for us, so thank you!
George Dreckmann
posted on May 28th, 2010 at 8:55 am
Hi,
The City of Madison chose a different route in dealing with plastic bags. Rather than ban the bags, we passed an ordinance that banned clean plastic bags from being landfilled. (We used the term clean to allow people to continue to use plastic trash bags.) Since we could not add plastic bags to our curbside program we set up 8 City sponsored drop off sites and also encouraged our residents to use the over 25 sites set up by retailers.
Our program targets no only retail bags, but we also take newspaper bags, softner salt bags, and most plastic film. So far this eyar we have recovered 5 tons of film from the City sites so we think this approach is successful.
Wayne Luke
posted on May 28th, 2010 at 11:16 am
Without store incentives for people to switch to reusable bags, this will be a battle that is never ending. If people had to pay 5-10 cents per paper or plastic bag and received 5-10 cents back per reusable then it would have more effect. Think of it like previous bottle bills except for bags. Then you work to phase out the one-use bags and the incentive over time, say 5 years.
Marion
posted on May 29th, 2010 at 5:03 pm
Good discussion. Plastic bags are deadly to sea turtles and other marine life here on the Gulf Coast of TX. Education is key and I like the idea of financial incentives as a motivator. Reusable bags are the way to go – even Walmart has them. Bags escape the waste stream through trash transfer, so it is not simply a matter of littering.
Kris
posted on May 31st, 2010 at 11:31 am
It’s a complete vicious circle when it comes to pointing the finger. The manufacturers make them because the people want them. The people want them because the manufacturers make them. Same goes for both. It’s all one thing. The question is – Who is to blame? – IMHO – Nobody and everybody. Since the human mind can’t cope with this sort of scenario, we go about our business wondering what to do, while doing nothing. Yes we can buy re-usable bags, but this is just one part of the puzzle needing to be solved. What about the packaging of goods? What about the oil used to make all the plastics and the trees used to make the boxes and so on. Yes you can go out and pick up all the waste that finds it’s way to the streams and oceans, but we’re dealing with a gusher here that just keeps spewing and there isn’t any regulation. People have too much faith in their creations of wonder. We buy into convenience and we love convenience. Time to get used to inconvenience and learn to live without polluting and destroying everything we come in contact with.
Nina Butler
posted on June 14th, 2010 at 1:28 pm
Ken, before adding Tyvek bags to our list of acceptable material on plasticbagrecycling.org, I asked nearly all of the markets for recovered bags and film and they said it was OK to include Tyvek material for recycling with grocery bags. Dupont’s mail back program (through Waste Management) is for their Tyvek printing material (Vivia).
Organic-Pet-Products
posted on June 21st, 2010 at 10:35 am
I can’t believe there was an actual ban on plastic bags. I see no argument at all, “Paper increases waste by about 80 percent”. How can that be ignored? I use plastic, recycle it and reuse it for so many things. I can’t carry say, 10 paper bags at a time or 10 canvas bags at a time… but in some instances I can carry 10-15 plastic bags at once with groceries in them. Canvas bags need to be washed regularly and if you shop for a week or two at a time like I do it just makes sence to use plastic. Thank goodness I don’t live on the forth floor any more.