California lawmakers have voted to ban single-use plastic bags at check-out counters in supermarkets. Retailers will still be offered paper bags but these will cost a nickel each. This welcome news is one of far reaching environmental significance when you consider the statistics. California alone uses 19 million plastic bags a year and the state spends $25 million annually to collect and bury them. San Francisco was the first city in the country to ban plastic bags in 2007. Now the whole state is gearing up for life without the ubiquitous carry bag which has become the symbol for our culture of convenience at the cost of something much greater.
With new support from the state’s grocery store lobby which wants a uniform statewide policy the ban in California is being introduced. This multiplicity of local laws prompted the California Grocers’ Association, which counts retailers like Safeway, Trader Joe’s, Costco, Whole Foods and 7-Eleven among its members to support the bill for a total ban.
This is a great step for positive CSR and it is one of those actions where the impact of a collective effort can be measured. Consider the following facts:
- Plastic bags are made of polyethylene which is a petroleum product
- Production contributes to air pollution and energy consumption
- Four to five trillion plastic bags are manufactured each year
- Only 1% of the plastic bags are recycled
- 60,000 plastic bags are used in the US every five seconds
- It takes 1000 years for polyethylene bags to break down and this leaches toxic substances that enter the food chain
- Approximately 1 billion seabirds and mammals die per year by ingesting plastic bags
- Plastic bags are often mistaken as food by marine mammals and 100,000 marine mammals die a painful death as the plastic wraps around their intestines or they choke to death
- Plastic bag choke landfills
- Plastic bags are carried by the wind into forests, ponds, rivers, and lakes
Plastic bags are the single largest urban impact on the environment. This is the reason why the UN is also proposing a global plastic bag ban - the result would be monumental. China and Bangladesh have already imposed a nation-wide ban and have seen significant environmental impacts. There is no reason why California shouldn't see the same change.
Comments
Just to clarify, the California Assembly voted and passed legislation (AB 1998) regarding regulating carryout bags. The bill now goes to the Senate and if approved there goes to the Governor's desk for his signing. If he signs the bill, it will become law.
They did not pass the bill it only was voted in the assembly...is this journalism or what...can I get an editor over here?
Agreed. I peed in a horse once.
Hey Buffalo Beast, I thought you were supposed to keep silent? But I also have partook in the so-called "peeing in the horse" before as well.
A billion sea birds and mammals huh? But only 100,000 of the billion are marine mammals. Why is it I've never heard this number before. That's the entire population of India! How is it there are any sea birds and mammals left?
Just curious.
@DarkSock and Buffalo Beast
Dear god, how many mammals have died from your urine? A gazillion?
How can something die from "plastic wrapp(ing) around their intestines when it has INGESTED the plastic bag?
Astute comments all around. I did hear someone, I think it may have been Pope Jay Louis IV, that recommended using horse urine to divert oil in the Gulf to said plastic 'bags. Plinky's mom told me that in between bites of her jelly donut.
I peed in a horse once.
I peed in a plastic bag once.
Just looked at the CA legislature site and this bill has not passed...jeez what a bunk article
I hope this passes and then I hope other states follow suite and then I hope they let gays marry.
Oh, But the important thing is that now all you people are talking about it. if even in a joking matter so now there are people giving it thought, and Because this thought has been spurred may be more likely to become reality. I'm sure you all panicked when you read this, looked it up and maybe even wrote someone about it. Either way I think the threat is real and the ban may even be more real. So I say stop urinating in horses and do something constructive.
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