Mayor pushing to ban plastic bags at Austin stores <Coppola, Sarah. "Mayor Pushing to Ban Plastic Bags at Austin Stores." Austin News, Sports, Weather, Longhorns, Business | Statesman.com. 25 July 2011. Web. 27 Oct. 2011.>
Mayor Lee Leffingwell recently proposed a ban on plastic bags provided at checkout counters. The reason for the ban is that plastic bags are a non-biodegradable waste that clogs up sewer pipes, pollutes waterways, and fills up landfills. He quoted statistics from the Austin Solid Waste Services Department which said Austin uses 263 million plastic bags a year and costs the city $850,000 annually to clean up the litter.
I am leaning against this proposal. On one hand, I realize plastic bags as they are presently manufactured are non-biodegradable and therefore not good for the environment. However, retailers have a large supply of plastic bags and larger retail stores have contracts with companies to provide them. This could potentially cause an economic hardship to suddenly stop using the bags.
In 2008, retail stores started offering at a modest price recyclable bags and routinely offered recycling of used plastic bags. This reduced the amount of plastic bags by only 20%. Presumably, buying the recycling bags was cost prohibitive to some lower-income households. Perhaps the city did not educate the public and solely relied on retailers to market and sell the concept of recyclable bags. Clearly more education will be needed if plastic bags are to be outlawed.
Plastic bags are used for other things besides carrying groceries. When packaging meats, plastics will prevent leaking and contaminating other foodstuffs. Some households will use plastic bags to line their trashcans and clean up after pets. Buying separate biodegradable bags may prove too expensive for lower income families. Crafters use plastic bags to stuff their pillows and other projects.
If plastic bags are to be banned, manufacturers could consider using a more eco-friendly material that are biodegradable. Before plastics, there was wax paper. Perhaps this could be made into bags and distributed at retailers. This would be biodegradable and relatively inexpensive.
I concur with my colleague, Steve‘s, perspective on the issue of whether plastic bags should be banned or not in his blog, Plastic Baggage. He believes that it won’t be successful to make them disappear for either the government or the people. He is able to put forth the difficulties that could develop if this ban took place and inform his fellow colleagues and readers of a proposal and its possible effects.
ReplyDeleteIt is true that banning plastic bags would make it hard to replace the function of them to many people. In a sense, they are recyclable. Unlike paper bags, they can withstand the rain and the heat; they will take less time to decompose; they take less space when being shipped to their destination; they don’t cost money to be used compared to the recyclable bags that one has to purchase.
It would take too much getting used to for some people if such a proposal was passed. They might have to spend more money on ways to replace the plastic bags and people would request the return of the bags. Although it may cost the city of Austin lots of money to clean up the mess of the bags it may cost more to ban them and make them vanish and can result in them coming right back.
I just read an article from a classmate of mine about plastic bags. When I first saw the article I didn't think much of it and figured what most might...plastic bags = boring to read about....I was quite surprised and I’ll say that my opinion has changed.
ReplyDeleteMy colleague starts talking about Mayor Lee Leffingwell's proposal to ban plastic bags at checkout counters because they clog up sewer pipes, pollute waterways and fill up some landfills. My colleague then stated that they opposed this ban and I couldn't figure out why. I thought to myself, "just look at the reasons stated above, aren't those good enough to support the ban of plastic bags?" After reading further, I saw the reasoning for the opposition. Retailers have started offering to recycle plastic bags for their customers, which cuts down on their effect on our environment and some retailers have also started selling environmentally friendly bags. Now, I thought those reasons were good as to why it might be okay to keep the plastic bags around, but I still didn't agree with the opposition to the ban.
I didn't even consider how it would affect some lower income families but my colleague did...purchasing grocery bags is simply not possible for lower income families and if that was the only option then those families might be out of luck. Also I didn't realize how many other uses plastic bags have; my colleague stated some great uses like packaging meats so they don't leak on other things, lining trashcans, and cleaning up after pets. I particularly liked how at the end of my colleagues blog, they stated an option for if the ban passes. They stated that maybe we could go back to using wax paper to make bags like we did in the past because it would be relatively inexpensive and biodegradable.
When I first started reading by classmates post, like I said, I didn't think much of it; but after I finished reading, my opinion has changed and I am also in opposition to the ban. I always enjoy it when someone else can show me a different perspective that I wouldn't have seen otherwise. Thank you.