I also got retail data from the store on what people were purchasing, in particular, what kinds of garbage bags they were purchasing. A lovely tote made from single use plastic bags. But for UPROSE, that concern is outweighed by the negative impacts of plastic bags on disadvantaged communities. And so because of that bands have been more popular. These residents are trying to keep them out. You can learn more at pbs.org/perilandpromise. Special thanks to our Emperor Penguin patrons Lawrence Harris and Brownies Central. California and Hawaii already have . WIRED 181k followers More information Banning Plastic Bags Is Great for the World, Right? It may not be big enough. First, we transport our fossil fuels to a type of petrochemical plant called a cracker. Cracker? Okay, maybe Im going overboard, but honestly, if it were a small ordeal to get a single-use bag, I could see the inconvenience of that motivating people to bring their reusable bags to the store a whole lot more than a five or ten cent tax. The adverse impacts of plastic bags are undeniable: When theyre not piling up in landfills, theyre blocking storm drains, littering streets, getting stuck in trees, and contaminating oceans, where fish, seabirds, and other marine animals eat them or get tangled up in them. Yeet that wheat. If they dont get reused a certain amount of time. There are also policy options that dont involve bans. This material which is widely used worldwide has been an issue for years now and these readings gives some explanation on why. Have a listen. Or do state governments get to say, when local governments do implement the policies, theres a concern that it causes a patchwork of policies that might harm businesses, confused customers. Natasha Mascarenhas. And honestly, a little sketchy that ethylene cant handle sunlight. The Massachusetts proposal may not become law this year, but its the latest sign that the plastic bag industry is losing this war. Every year, around 500 billion plastic grocery bags are used worldwide. Multi-use plastic bags are catching on slower than their cloth counterparts. And all of these materials do better? bags, or maybe even stop keeping bags at the register at all. And thats actually increasing the carbon footprint. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy. And so whats really interesting is just adding a small price to each, each bag, you know, five cents, we see really large behavioral changes just with that small price. Okay, maybe Im going overboard, but honestly, if it were a small ordeal to get a single-use bag, I could see the inconvenience of that motivating people to bring their reusable bags to the store a whole lot more than a five or ten cent tax. ETHAN: Why does all that matter? Nearly one year after New York became the second state in the nation to pass a ban on grocery store plastic bags the law is going into effect on Sunday. Not only are there these human health concerns, but crackers and other petrochemical facilities are not located very fairly. The Supreme Court Has Delayed Its Abortion Pill Decision. Plastic bags not only destroy the physical infrastructure, she says, referring to the way they clog up storm drains and other systems, they contribute to emissions. And she points out that marine plastic pollution is a threat to low-income people who fish for their dinner: So many frontline communities depend on food coming from the ocean. Thats why her group supported New York Citys bag fee even though its more of a burden on lower-income citizens. What do they think this is, a Ritz quick scheme? In all fairness, every material has a climate impact, and high-density polyethylene is not that bad if you stack its carbon footprint against other materials or even other plastics. [bell ring] Like blueberries or trips to the bathroom, not all plastics are created equal, and single-use plastic bags are typically made from a material called high-density polyethylene. And so its the sort of carrots versus sticks story, the sticks of the taxes seem to be much more effective than the carrots of the bonuses. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. In fact, they may even feel too awkward to ask for one. The shift from one single-use bag to another single-use bag may improve one environmental outcome, but be offset by another environmental impact.. After the break, well discuss where bag bans have shown shortcomings, the pros and cons of other types of grocery bags, and some other solution ideas that havent gained the same level of popularity as Dijon-crusted plastic. ETHAN: Plastic bag bans also can negatively affect businesses. As far as I know, nobody has done the definitive analysis, which would necessarily need to have a large number of caveats and qualifications. Every time you need to process a new batch of polyethylene, you bring it to the facility and say, Polly want a cracker?. It honestly sounds like a superhero, doesnt it? Cracker? Two weeks ago, the Massachusetts State Senate passed a measure that would ban plastic bags from being dispensed by many retail businesses and require a charge of 10 cents or more for a recycled paper or reusable bag. There are so very many variables. But are bans on plastic bags or reusable alternatives like tote or canvas bags viable solutions to the worlds plastic problem? So what this tells us is that people were actually doing this very green thing. But in terms of plastic, you are correct. Produce sellers in this busy agricultural hub 95 miles. by John Stossel | May 5, 2020. PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. ETHAN: So just to wrap up this point, would you say that its a net positive or negative? The measure now under consideration in Massachusetts, for example, would mandate that single-use paper bags contain at least 40 percent recycled fiber. So I wont rehash it all today, but if you listen to our episodes on fracking or the Permian Basin or the Haynesville Shale, youll learn a little bit about the villain origin story of plastic bags, and some of the many issues to which they contribute. Right now! You would think five cents to reuse a bag would have a state similar behavioral response is five cents to not use a bag to have to pay for than plastic bag. It is the essential source of information and ideas that make sense of a world in constant transformation. India followed the UK with a . For example, I talked in our plastic straws episode about something called default choice modification. I collected data from supermarkets, on the types of bags people were using at checkout, both before and after the policy went into effect. When we got rid of the carry out bags, people had to start purchasing garbage bags. So have at least 88 localities in California, including the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco, plus cities and towns in more than a dozen other states and more than a dozen other countries. Choking the oceans with Plastics. A lot of the waste ends up in our communities, says Elizabeth Yeampierre, executive director of UPROSE, an environmental and social justice-oriented community organization in Brooklyn. How bad was Tucker Carlson for the planet. And paper bags, when you compare them to plastic bags, they are environmentally more environmentally friendly in some ways, but in other ways, theyre less environmentally friendly. Last month, the New York City Council passed a 5-cent-per-bag fee on single-use bags handed out by most retailers. Only 2.4 percent of the worlds cropland is planted with cotton, yet it accounts for 24 percent of the global market for insecticides and 11 percent for pesticides, the World Wildlife Fund reports. Cracker plants release air pollutants such as benzene which is linked to cancer and childhood leukemia, toluene which is linked to birth defects and brain, liver, and kidney problems, formaldehyde which is a known carcinogen, and particulate matter which is linked to cardiovascular and respiratory disease and lung and bladder cancer. Nielson & Associates Manhasset, NY : Banning Plastic Bags Is Great for the World, Right? ETHAN: The Sweaty Penguin is presented by Peril and Promise: a public media initiative from The WNET Group in New York, reporting on the issues and solutions around climate change. Adler, Ben. California and Hawaii banned them, then New York. They are a lot easier to carry than many other shopping bags out there. Every time you need to process a new batch of polyethylene, you bring it to the facility and say, Polly want a cracker? [ding ding ding] Wow, that was a tough one. As compared to plastic bags, paper bags also require significantly more energy and water to manufacture, and more energy to transport since theyre heavier. (Cindy) Works Cited. The court has given itself a deadline extension until late Friday night to decide whether mifepristone should remain legal. The Australian study concluded that the best option appears to be a reusable bag, but one made from recycled plastic, not cotton. You can conceive of the possibility of collecting plastic bags from the ocean, but microplastics are almost impossible to remove from their environments. ITS INSATIABLE! I took a look at a 2017 Congressional Report which found the petrochemical industry was, at the time, pursuing 48 new plastics-related projects in the Houston area. So I often tell people, if theyre choosing a bag, you want to choose a bag that you are going to reuse that could be a thin bag, then plastic bag, or it could be a nylon bag, which is technically still plastic, but is a woven plastic thats fairly lightweight, and thus, perhaps not going to have the same environmental impact as a heavier plastic or a cloth bag. How do we do that? I personally dont care much what kind of bag my groceries are in, Id even take a Hello Kitty bag if it meant my eggs got home without breaking, but Im sure some people really love their plastic bags, and for those that do, this is certainly an intriguing possibility. Bag bans seem to be all the rage, but its not the only option. Thats leading to a split in the anti-bag movement. Were finding that hybrid bands can be as you know, as successful as the taxes, just standalone taxes. Our best hope the next time Earth is in the crosshairs? Donate today tohelp keep Grists site and newsletters free. The ideal city bag policy would probably involve charging for paper and plastic single-use bags, as New York City has decided to do, while giving out reusable recycled-plastic bags to those who need them, especially to low-income communities and seniors. (The crunchy rich should already have more than enough tote bags from PBS and Whole Foods.). As longtime plastic bag adversary Ian Frazier recently reported in The New Yorker, In 2014, plastic grocery bags were the seventh most common item collected during the Ocean Conservancys International Coastal Cleanup, behind smaller debris such as cigarette butts, plastic straws, and bottle caps. The New York City Sanitation Department collects more than 1,700 tons of single-use carry-out bags every week, and has to spend $12.5 million a year to dispose of them. Were trying to get these deep dives a little bit shorter so you can listen to the whole thing during your commute or workout or walking your grandpa or what have you, and also make it a little bit more manageable for our team. I also looked at paper bags as well. Electrify everything, California says including trucks and trains. And sort of the bottom line, what I found with in terms of like the amount of plastic, was about a third of the plastic that was eliminated by the carry out bag ban came back in the form of garbage bags, which do tend to be a bit thicker than the carry out bags. NADJA: Will you at least go and talk to it? 1- Out of all the bags that are currently available in the market, plastic bags are the most convenient for consumers. All donations matched! Youre being ridiculous. Not So Fast | WIRED Plastic Bottles Plastic Bags Microsoft quietly supported legislation to make it easier to fix devices. If so, awesome, although we should probably talk about why youre that obsessed with your tote bag. Capacitors. Increasingly, environmentalists are pushing for laws that include fees for all single-use bags, and that require paper bags to be made with recycled content, which could lower their carbon footprint. Very broadly, carbon footprints are proportional to mass of an object, says Tyler. So I am an environmental economist. For example, because paper bags take up so much more space, more trucks are needed to ship paper bags to a store than to ship plastic bags. 1999-2023 Grist Magazine, Inc. All rights reserved. And in particular, stores start offering thicker plastic bags and sticker paper bags for free. Scientists believe lasting symptoms following a coronavirus infection is not a single disorder. 12:48 PM PDT March 16, 2023. Two weeks ago, the Massachusetts State Senate passed a measure that would ban plastic bags from being dispensed by many retail businesses and require a charge of 10 cents or more for a recycled paper or reusable bag. Proposition 67, also known as SB270, officially passed in November 2016, prohibits plastic bags . Its like when your boss bans YouTube at work, so everyone jumps to Discord. Eastern Hemlocks Are Declining. Maybe call the manager over or fly the CEO in on a helicopter or pull the fire alarm so everyone starts screaming and running. 2- From a retailer's perspective, the thin plastic bags are the most economical of all. Even studies conducted with the purest of intentions depend on any number of assumptions. I guess the name does make sense. But what if reusable bags arent good either? We use [drumroll] oil and gas! In addition to being my celebrity couple name with a girl named Polly, polyethylene is a string of carbon and hydrogen atoms. Have a listen. Come with external costs 9. It honestly sounds like a superhero, doesnt it? Paper does have its own environmental consequences in terms of how much energy it takes to generate, acknowledges Emily Norton, director of the Massachusetts Sierra Club. So paper bag usage did increase quite a bit. 2. Of those 48, 16 had publicly available air pollution data, so I took a look at that group. Facebook, Follow us on A New Computer Proof Blows Up Centuries-Old Fluid Equations. In May 2016, the New York City Council passed a 5-cent-per-bag fee on single-use bags handed out by most retailers. The Bad Astronomer Takes You on a Tour of the Cosmos. Thats leading to a split in the anti-bag movement. [slam the wrong buzz several times, then rewind], Okay, okay cracker? Then, that ethylene can be sent to a new plant where theyll add a catalyst which initiates a chemical reaction and forms our high-density polyethylene. And the most common substitute, paper bags, may be just as bad or worse, depending on the environmental problem youre most concerned about. Seeing how nuanced this issue is, I asked Dr. Taylor what the next steps could look like. Grist is the only award-winning newsroom focused on exploring equitable solutions to climate change. But studies conducted in Australia or Europe have limited applicability in the US, particularly when youre considering climate impact, because every country has a different energy mix. And cotton, unlike paper, is not currently recycled in most places. What if instead of making the plastic from fossil fuels, we made it out of plants? Facebook, Follow us on They say Hanukkah gets eight nights as if its special, but with Christmas, you get six whole months! In a queer vacation hot spot on Cape Cod, an ad hoc community proved that Americans can stifle large outbreaksif they want to. Bag bans cut this litter off at the source: In San Jose, California, a plastic bag ban led to an 89 percent reduction in the number of plastic bags winding up in the citys storm drains. Because with any product, its important to think about all those three dimensions, can we as consumers reduce the amount that were using? For more than 250 years, mathematicians have wondered if the Euler equations might sometimes fail to describe a fluids flow. But what I do know I find so fascinating. Some bills, like in Massachusetts, try to reduce the use of paper bags as well as plastic, but still favor paper. In fact, every region of the US has a different energy mix. I took a look at a 2017 Congressional Report which found the petrochemical industry was, at the time, pursuing 48 new plastics-related projects in the Houston area. Im really proud of this one and I hope you enjoy it! A Canadian Gas Field Is Polluting First Nation Communities, How Climate Change, Poverty, and Social Stigma Affect Menstrual Hygiene. Or is it a little too nuanced to make that type of assessment? Studies of bags environmental impacts over their life cycle have reached widely varying conclusions. But theres also so much nuance to this issue, and its important to consider these consequences of bag bans as we come up with the best possible solutions. Its the type of giving that allows us to plan for future projects and provides us with the consistent funding we need to continue bringing you the climate news that you rely on. Problematic degradation 4. Did you just finish trick or treating? What a deal! But it turns out that charging people to use bags is not the same as paying them to bring reusable bags. But when ethylene gas escapes the facility and is exposed to sunlight, it turns to smog, which has been associated with increased rates of asthma, lung and respiratory infections, and cardiovascular problems. ITS COMPOSTABLE! Theyre just not very effective. The Sweaty Penguin is presented by Peril and Promise: a public media initiative from The WNET Group in New York, reporting on the issues and solutions around climate change. Climate change, they say, isnt the only form of environmental degradation to worry about. I know youve done some comparisons on different strategies and looked at this more holistically. And when I no longer had access to those carry out bags, it meant I didnt have this quote unquote, free source of garbage bags anymore. And as you mentioned, tote bags can be actually more harmful. debut in season five. I mean, look at all the kids roaming the streets looking for water after eating a single Saltine. Spoiler alert: plastics parents got divorced at age eleven and it still isnt over it. Some social justice activists who work in low-income urban neighborhoods or communities of color also argue that plastic bags are a particular scourge. Its taken long enough. Thats the percentage the Massachusetts Sierra Club has advocated for at the state level and when lobbying for municipal bag rules. A tweak could let quantum possibilities increase as space expands. LASZLO: Oh, alright, if itll shut you up. They are not the largest sources of plastic pollution Plastic waste is indeed a. And cotton, unlike paper, is not currently recycled in most places. Paper bags do have some pros over plastic theyre biodegradable, recyclable, compostable, reusable, all the fun -ables. Ironic.plastic is still better than cloth, but it just has to be more than single-use. Try Christmas now! Washington, D.C.s government estimates that its 5-cent bag tax has led to a 60 percent reduction in the number of these bags being used, although that figure is contested by other sources. ETHAN: Its true. You know, thats a bit of sort of the speculation of why these behavioral changes occurred. Cracker? You can learn more at pbs.org/perilandpromise. How do we make polyethylene? ETHAN: Like, come on, we dont need more toxic chemicals in one spot! [wrong buzzer, rewind] Cracker? Plastic Bags Take Up To 1,000 Years to Decompose. Whereas the small taxes are very effective. Are Plastic Bag Bans a Solution? Often they need to be reused at least 100, if not more times, to be more environmentally friendly than those thin plastic bags that were so familiar with. In some cases, people start buying more plastic trash bags now that they cant use their grocery bags to store trash. Businesses may be reluctant to engage in default choice modification because customers might not realize the law and think theyre just getting bad service. How do you tackle microplastics? Not So Fast. But for UPROSE, that concern is outweighed by the negative impacts of plastic bags on disadvantaged communities. Thats right, its always the one you most suspect. The big difference is that paper does biodegrade eventually. Plastic is a toxin that stays in the environment, marine animals ingest it, and it enters their bodies and then ours.. Not So Fast Like cigarettes, plastic bags have recently gone from a tolerated nuisance to a widely despised and discouraged vice. What Comes Next for Venezuelas Oil Industry? Plastic bags are made from non-renewable sources and on this account, highly contribute to climate change. With respect to the bonuses we talked about. If you melt a plastic bag down, you can absolutely recycle that polyethylene, and in fact, recycled high-density polyethylene has about a third of the carbon footprint of virgin high-density polyethylene. Americans consume more than 10 billion paper bags annually, which is equivalent to 14 million trees. Recently, many politicians were in such a hurry to ban plastic bags. Not So Fast" by Ben Adler focuses on the states attempting to end giving out plastic bags for free hoping to reduce plastic waste. TAYLOR: Yes. ITS PAPER. Waste in particular, plastic packaging, how it is used, how it gets discarded. Oil and natural gas are also made of carbon and hydrogen, so in addition to using them for energy, we process them into plastic.
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