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The New York Times has a story today reporting a retreat from imposing fees or bans on plastic shopping bags because of the economic downturn. The story particularly interested me because I spoke with one of my editors last week about doing a story on the growing problem of plastics in the ocean. By one estimate, there are 10 million tons of plastic floating in the oceans, notably a broad swath of the Pacific discovered in 1997 by amateur scientist Charles Moore, who has since founded the Algalita Marine Research Foundation (http://www.algalita.org/), which is dedicated to researching the extent of plastic pollution in the world's oceans.
Another study, done in England, found plastic pieces called nurdles prevalent on beaches as well as in the water, where they act as magnets for persistent organic pollutants. A Greenpeace study can be found here: http://www.unep.org/regionalseas/marinelitter/publications/docs/plastic_ocean_report.pdf
Plastic bags, of course, are only a fraction of the problem. But, like much plastic, they are difficult to recycle and, while they may break down, they don't biodegrade. Even the plastics industry admits only about 7 percent of bags end up back in those recycling bins at supermarkets and other places. In recent years, Ireland, China, Rwanda (yes, progressive Rwanda), and a few cities, notably San Francisco and Paris, have banned plastic bags. Whole Foods stopped distributing them early in 2008. In October, Wal-Mart began offering a 50-cent reusable bag and announced a goal to cut plastic bag waste by 25 percent in the U.S. and 50 percent in other countries by 2013, a goal environmentalists criticized as timid. Ikea, www.ikea.com, started charging for bags and suddenly customers found they didn't really need them.
According to the Times story,http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/us/24bags.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=plastic%20bag&st=cse, proposals to ban or levy fee on bags have stalled because some state officials fear a backlash if they're imposed during economic hard times.
Bills in the Virginia General Assembly to ban plastic bags at stores or impost a nickel for each bag given to customers were pulled, at the request of retail and industry officials. Gee, they have no reason to want to continue selling bags and earning profits, do they?
Delegate Joseph Morrissey, Henrico Democrat, proposed a plastic-bag ban after seeing how Ireland reduced its plastic-bag consumption by 90 percent when it taxed each bag. Other countries, including China, India, Bangladesh and many in Europe, also have restricted plastic bags. But, according to the Associated Press, Morrissey pulled his legislation at the request of the Virginia Plastic Bag Coalition, a group that includes state and local officials along with several retail and national plastics industry representatives, who have lobbied across the nation against restrictions on plastic bags. The coalition wanted to see how a recycling initiative in Isle of Wight County fares, he said.
But it seems to me imposing a ban or a fee during economic hard times is precisely what legislators should be doing. Are consumers more likely to change their behavior when nickels are harder to come by or when they're flush?
As Lisa Mastny of the Worldwatch Institute, http://www.worldwatch.org/, notes: "You're basically getting at the heart of consumer culture and trying to turn it around, which is a radical idea in some ways, in this country at least."
But the perniciously poisonous culture of convenience has to stop somewhere. Plastic bags certainly aren't the biggest environmental issue facing the planet. But if we can't make that small change, how can we hope to tackle something as threatening as global warming? |
Jim Morrison
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