When discarded, they clog wastewater and storm drains, entangle and kill about 100,000 marine mammals each year, and degenerate into toxic microplastics that rot in our oceans and landfills for up to 1,000 years.
Despite this, shoppers together use around 500 billion single-use plastic bags each year.
Plastic is always the wrong choice. Contaminates and is toxic during production and use. In addition, it represents a deadly threat to marine and terrestrial life and must always be burned or buried, even after being recycled several times.While banning bags won't solve the plastic crisis on its own, it does help change plastic consumption habits and makes consumers and retailers more open to alternatives. It's no secret that our dependence on plastic has turned into a crisis. Every year around 500 billion plastic bags are used for shopping around the world. It is estimated that 8 million tons of plastic end up in the oceans every year. In addition, according to National Geographic, if the plastics industry were a country, it would be the fourth largest emitter of carbon in the world.
Yes, the production of these products pollutes our atmosphere and releases toxins into the air, but environmentalists focus primarily on what happens when a plastic bag is discarded. When plastic bags are improperly disposed of, they pollute waterways, reach oceans and clog sewers. Once in the ocean, marine animals can mistake plastic for food or become entangled in it. Compostable film bags for products that customers use in stores before paying must meet the requirements applicable to compostable products and film bags of Chapter 70A.
The way many of these changes began was by writing letters or talking to local businesses and persuading them to stop using plastic bags. Animals can get entangled in bags and drown or mistake them for food, which can clog their bowels and cause them to die of hunger. And practically in any case, people are opting for an alternative type of grocery bag, and while plastic is unique because it doesn't break down, other types of bags have their own problems. There have also been 200 counties and municipalities that have enacted ordinances that either impose a fee for plastic bags or prohibit them altogether.
Other critics of the ban on plastic bags say that bans are unlikely to solve anything and divert attention from “real” solutions. Paper bags have some advantages over plastic bags: they are biodegradable, recyclable, compostable, reusable and everything that can be done is fun. It is estimated that, around the world, people consume the equivalent of a plastic credit card every week,1 and it is expected that by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the sea. We will analyze the extent to which plastic bags represent a problem, some of the deficiencies of the most modern solutions and other ideas that are less frequently discussed about how to move forward in the most sustainable and effective way.
After the break, we will analyze the aspects where the ban on bags has proven to be deficient, the advantages and disadvantages of other types of grocery bags, and some other ideas for solutions that have not gained the same level of popularity as Dijon crust plastic. The production, use and disposal of plastic are all harmful to human health and the environment, as plastic is rarely recycled or even recycled. Companies collect and keep all 8 cents to recover part of the cost of providing the bags and encouraging customers to bring their own reusable bags. Single-use plastic bags only take 20 years to break down (much less time than most plastics), but this isn't necessarily a good thing.
