Plastic Bag Bans/Reduction Initiatives

Here is some info on San Francisco's program.. http://www.plasticsnews.com/blog/2007/03/frisco_bans_plastic_bags.html http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89135360 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/03/28/MNGDROT5Q N1.DTL

Kirsten Weinmeister

Grants/Recycling Coordinator
City of Snoqualmie
Public Works Department
38194 S.E. Stearns Road
Post Office Box 987
Snoqualmie, WA 98065
425-831-4919 extension 23
Fax: 425-831-4798

Ryan,

This is a great research topic to follow up as there is a lot of pressure to reduce the number of plastic bags we are all using. Here in Australia it has recently been agreed by government to trial bans on free plastic bags, with people in the trial areas being required to pay up to 25cents per bag. I think that for your research to really contribute to the debate it will need to look at what people are using as an alternative to plastic bags, and some of the flow-on effects. I recently did some consulting work with a plastics manufacturer and they were very pleased about the shift away from free plastic bags in supermarkets - their reason for this is that they are now selling garbage bags in place of the free bags people were using for their garbage. The bags that are sold for garbage are much heavier plastic and sold at a higher profit margin than those sold to supermarkets for customers to take away. So for them the net effect was in fact more plastic being sold, and most of this going into the environment with garbage. I think it will also be interesting to look at the materials used in alternative bags, and the environmental impacts of these - cotton bags, for example, have a tremendous associated water cost Would love to hear the results of your research

Kind regards
David Speller 

Context Pty Ltd
Practice Manager
22 Merri Street,
Brunswick VIC 3056
Tel: 03 9380 6933
Fax: 03 9380 4066
Email: [email protected]

Thank you, David, for your systems thinking and these very interesting comments. It never fails to astonish me that in-the-box economic and techno fixes that I initially applaud unfailingly run smack into the reinforced concrete wall of unintended consequences. Hybrid vehicles, compact fluorescents, biofuels, even replacing those miserable little plastic bags - all of them have varying degrees of problematic results, mostly rather serious. Every day I become more convinced: we have sailed over the horizon of limits to growth, and we cannot go on living this way.

Cheers,
Adam in wet and unseasonably chilly springtime Massachusetts, USA where plastic rains/reigns - unimpeded by umbrellas and unfettered by reason

WHile the list is on this issue, I have a couple of questions. I read one of those "infotorials" in a local paper (infotorial is my term for a guest editorial written by a paid hack fronting for some interest group but disguised as unbiased commentary) in the piece which appeared to be written by someone friendly to plastic bag manufacturers, the writer ridiculed WHole foods and other retailers recent policies to do away with plastic bags as corporate ploys to get good press from the green fad. He continued with a section on how much more environmentally damaging paper bags were than plastic. He gave per bag figures showing (I am just putting out numbers, I don't recall the exact figures) it took X amount of energy to make a plastic bag but 2X to make a paper one. I wonder if this is true. Even if it is, it seems likely that on a per unit of capacity a sturdy paper bag probably equals 2+ plastic ones thus negating any supposed advantages, The article stressed that plasitc bags are made from clean natural gas (failing to mention the messy details about how the gas is produced and how it might be used for alternative energy purposes) and also mentioned the "devastation" to forests that paper bags cause. I am not here to champion paper bags as the best solution, but just to sound off a bit about the rhetorical legerdemain used by industry folks to "educate" the public.

Hi all: Re plastic bag reduction initiatives: You may want to contact some of the organizations that have partnered in the Ontario initiative to reduce plastic bags by 50% by 2012. See the press release from last year at: http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/en/news/2007/050901.php Contact organizations such as the Association of Municipal Recycling Coordinators and the Clean Air Foundation, who the press release says will lead research projects on this. Cheers Linda Linda Varangu, M.Eng. Director My Sustainable Canada Tel.: 519.623.8037 Email: [email protected] Web: www.MySustainableCanada.org

San Francisco's plans include offering degradable plastic bags. Offering biodegradable plastic bags as an alternative to conventional plastic bags should be considered with attention to infrastructure- even the certified ones require commercial composting operations for optimal degradation. See 2007 report on biodegradable plastics at the site below as a starting point for information http://envs.colorado.edu/undergrad_program/C106/ENVS-3001/

Lisa

Dr. Lisa Barlow
Senior Instructor
Baker RAP, Geological Sciences, and Environmental Studies
Baker Hall UCB 0176 University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309
303-492-3428

The community of Leaf Rapids in northern Manitoba, Canada has instituted a bylaw banning the use of plastic bags in their community. I don't know what the outcome of this decision is but it was a local initiative in a relatively small community that decided to take matters into their own hands. A check with their website might be of interest.

Roger Schroeder

Ecosystem Liaison Advisor
Riding Mountain National Park
Wasagaming, MB, ROJ-2HO
email: [email protected]
ph: 204-848-7103
cell: 204-848-0182
fx: 204-848-2596

For packing veggies and fruit, I make suitable sized nylon bags that last for ever. If you don't use the veg up in a couple of days, it is a good idea to keep a few plastic bags on hand to store them in so they don't dry out. You can put a variety of vegetables in a single plastic bag in the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator and reuse the bag. So on those days when you forget to take your cloth shopping bag, you will have another use for a plastic bag at home.

Marion