Plastic Pollution Is Not Your Fault, But You Can be Part of the Solution

“If it can’t be reduced, reused, repaired, rebuilt, refurbished, resold, recycled or composted, then it should be restricted, redesigned or removed from productions”– from the song ‘Garbage’ by Pete Seeger, late American singer and social activist.

Every time the average American makes a trip to the local grocery store, there is a good chance they end up leaving with multiple plastic bags which are to be thrown away after they make the trip from the store to the house. Single-use plastic bags are absolutely detrimental to our environment. Obviously, the easiest solution to this is for everyone to use their own reusable bags. In fact, my family keeps loads of extra reusable bags in our car for whenever we end up at the grocery store. My mom would actually rather carry all of our groceries by hand rather than use the plastic bags the store provides. If all people were like my mom then our country would not have this issue, but, unfortunately, they are not. So, what is our government and corporations doing to limit the consumption of single-use plastic bags?

The United States consumes a fifth of the 500 billion plastic bags that are used annually around the world. This is critical because they take hundreds of years to biodegrade. Although you might think you are part of the solution by recycling the bags, the truth is that the majority of the “recycled” bags end up in landfills anyway because they are both difficult and expensive to recycle. Our environment is taking on plastic bags at an exponentially faster rate than it can get rid of them. Not only do they affect the land, they also affect the seas. Plastic bags are now in the top 12 most popular items of debris found along coastlines. Sea creatures die daily due to plastic bags in the oceans, either by getting caught in them or by mistaking them for food, slowly causing the innocent animals to die of starvation from clogged arteries. 

So why are countries not immediately banning plastic bags? Although banning these single-use bags may seem like the easiest solution, bag bans have unintended consequences. In states where thin plastic bags were banned, research found that thicker plastic bags or paper bags were purchased to replace them. This resulted in roughly 30% of the plastic waste reduced from the bag ban being offset from a shift into other bags. For instance, in California communities with bag bans, sales of four gallon trash bags increased 75%. Others propose a fee for single use plastic bags. However, a 10 cent charge for plastic bags, would create economic inequality as lower-income communities would be burdened with higher costs for groceries, especially since a large percentage of their income is being spent on food. 

Plastic bag bans may also be harmful economically. Because plastic bags are responsible for sustaining nearly 31,000 jobs in the United States, a ban would cause significant unemployment. In retail areas where bans are in place, reports found that customers are more likely to take their business to other locations without bans. As for the corporations, store owners are being forced to spend more money on alternative bags. Seattle’s store owners are spending between 40 and 200% more on other bags to replace their plastic ones. 

Although a ban on plastic bags may cause shifts in bag usage, it is still effective overall. It may not be the long-term solution, but plastic bag bans are a good start to reducing plastic waste. For example, a San Jose report found that after the city’s plastic bag ban, there was an estimated 89% reduction of plastics found in the storm drain system.

Because banning plastic bags isn’t the most convenient solution, we have to look for other methods to reduce plastic waste. Firstly, spreading awareness about the dangers of releasing single-use plastic bags is critical in persuading people to use reusable bags. If everyone simply brought their own bags to the grocery store, we would not need the government to intervene. However, being realistic, there are people in this country who do not care enough about the environment to take their own bags to the store. Therefore, it is important that nonprofit organizations do what they can to provide store-goers with reusable bags. There are so many ways to reduce single-use plastic consumption, we just have to be more cautious about remembering to reusable bags to the store. Or, just be like my mom and keep them in the car at all times!