Friday, December 2, 2011

Plastic Bags: A Problem We Can Solve

The staggering production and waste of plastic bags has a rare characteristic among conservation issues: while it currently has gross environmental consequences, eliminating a large proportion of the problem can be done relatively cheaply and easily. This means that plastic bag usage is an ideal problem for conservation biologists to spend time and effort on. Currently, over 1 trillion plastic bags are produced each year. China alone consumes 3 billion plastic bags daily. Even more unfortunate, each of those plastic bags could take up to 1000 years to fully degrade.

These plastic bags usually go to one of two problematic places: landfills or the ocean. Our landfills are already being filled up, and trash disposal is starting to escalate into a major problem. Many bags do not even make it to the landfills – they get washed or dumped into the ocean, where they pose a variety of hazards. Many bags are mistaken for jellyfish and subsequently consumed by sea life. Since the plastic bag (obviously) cannot be digested, it usually remains in the animal’s digestive system, causing the animal to think that it is not hungry and subsequently die of hunger. Alternately, the bags photodegrade into microscopic pieces – pieces that absorb toxic chemicals.

Luckily, there are solutions to the plastic bag problem. Initiating a plastic bag ban has been promoted by some, but it often just leads to production of paper bags and compostable bags, which still have significant environmental impacts. Also, bans blatantly take away people’s free will – something voters tend to dislike. Better solutions encourage people to use reusable bags, each one of which can save hundreds or thousands of plastic bags. A highly effective method has been to put a tax on plastic bags. Even a 5-cent tax has reduced bag usage by 80-95%, and this does not take away the feeling of having free will to choose how one bags one’s groceries. Another longer-term solution is to have a cultural shift away from a “use-and-toss” mentality and towards a reusing mentality. This sort of cultural shift would actually reduce many environmental issues, and will certainly be necessary in the future if we want to maintain global standards of living. Plastic bags are a massive problem, but one that can be resolved rapidly if we put pressure on politicians to put a tax on plastic bags. At the very least, make sure that you don't forget your reusable bag in the car next time you go to the store!

Anastasia Quintana

For more information, visit reuseit.com.

http://www.reuseit.com/learn-more/top-facts/plastic-bag-facts

3 comments:

Niree Dingizian said...
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Niree Dingizian said...
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Niree Dingizian said...

I am in complete agreement with this posting. As a college student, and frequent shopper, the tax on plastic bags has been more than adequate in deterring me from using them when I shop. Unfortunately, money drives our society and is often the most effective means of regulating actions. However, now that I know plastic bags can subsequently cause animals to starve to death, I am even stronger proponent of using reusable bags. Thankfully the stores at home have stopped offering plastic bags and instead offer paper bags. Although I know even this isn't ideal, it's a start...