https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2...g-bans-garbage
Relevant facts culled from the article (but read the article.):
So fact 1: The banning of plastic bags doesn't take all of that plastic out of the environment. People still buy plastic bags to use for "plastic bag things," like picking up poo or the popular bathroom waste bin.
Fact 2: paper bags = destruction of wildlife habitat and increase in greenhouse gas emissions.
The "bunch of studies" are posted in the article, which you should read.
Fact 3: These numbers are crazy. That's not so much an objective fact as an observation.
Here's a link to today's podcast if you want to listen to it:
https://www.npr.org/2019/05/23/72603...-be-a-bad-move
Relevant facts culled from the article (but read the article.):
Taylor [the researcher] found these bag bans did what they were supposed to: People in the cities with the bans used fewer plastic bags, which led to about 40 million fewer pounds of plastic trash per year. But people who used to reuse their shopping bags for other purposes, like picking up dog poop or lining trash bins, still needed bags. "What I found was that sales of garbage bags actually skyrocketed after plastic grocery bags were banned," she says. This was particularly the case for small, 4-gallon bags, which saw a 120 percent increase in sales after bans went into effect.
"
[I snipped the chart. If you want to see the chart, read the article.)
Trash bags are thick and use more plastic than typical shopping bags. "So about 30 percent of the plastic that was eliminated by the ban comes back in the form of thicker garbage bags," Taylor says. On top of that, cities that banned plastic bags saw a surge in the use of paper bags, which she estimates resulted in about 80 million pounds of extra paper trash per year.
"
[I snipped the chart. If you want to see the chart, read the article.)
Trash bags are thick and use more plastic than typical shopping bags. "So about 30 percent of the plastic that was eliminated by the ban comes back in the form of thicker garbage bags," Taylor says. On top of that, cities that banned plastic bags saw a surge in the use of paper bags, which she estimates resulted in about 80 million pounds of extra paper trash per year.
Plastic haters, it's time to brace yourselves. A bunch of studies find that paper bags are actually worse for the environment. They require cutting down and processing trees, which involves lots of water, toxic chemicals, fuel and heavy machinery. While paper is biodegradable and avoids some of the problems of plastic, Taylor says, the huge increase of paper, together with the uptick in plastic trash bags, means banning plastic shopping bags increases greenhouse gas emissions. That said, these bans do reduce nonbiodegradable litter.
The "bunch of studies" are posted in the article, which you should read.
A 2011 study by the U.K. government found a person would have to reuse a cotton tote bag 131 times before it was better for climate change than using a plastic grocery bag once. The Danish government recently did a study that took into account environmental impacts beyond simply greenhouse gas emissions, including water use, damage to ecosystems and air pollution. These factors make cloth bags even worse. They estimate you would have to use an organic cotton bag 20,000 times more than a plastic grocery bag to make using it better for the environment.
Here's a link to today's podcast if you want to listen to it:
https://www.npr.org/2019/05/23/72603...-be-a-bad-move
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