The Policy Greenhouse

The Reasoning Behind the Ban

It is no secret that plastics have been a major contributor to the pollution that the world faces today. Their use pervades many parts of daily life, from grocery bags to take out containers, water bottles, utensils, and more. As a whole, their usage has had a toll on the environment. The most concerning factor in all of this has been the emergence of microplastics. The presence of microplastics (small molecules of plastic that have made their way into soil, water, and organisms) has increased lately because of all the plastics that have been dumped either into the ocean or other landfills. Plastics are non-biodegradable, meaning that they will continue to break up into smaller and smaller pieces, pieces that are so small that they have been found in the bloodstream of humans. The ban that has been placed on plastic bags has been done in an effort to keep the amount of microplastics in the world from increasing, as well as to reduce the amount of plastic goods being made, as their production requires the use of fossil fuels and thus contributes to global warming and atmospheric pollution. The plastic bag ban has gone into law in many states, including California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, New York, Oregon and Vermont. While this ban has most certainly contributed to a decrease in single use plastic use in these states and across America, there have been some unintended consequences of making the switch to paper bags. 

The Effects of the Ban

Because the ban of plastic bags was strictly for single use plastic bags, the amount of reusable plastic bags that have been used has increased. What’s more, is that the ban on single use plastic bags (in the previously mentioned 8 states) has led to an increase in thicker and heavier reusable plastic bags in landfills. With this in mind, it is easy to see that banning single use plastic bags has not had the intended effect of reducing microplastics in the wild. However, this increase in reusable plastic bags has only been observed in one American city. So even putting that consequence aside, let’s discuss what many grocery stores and restaurants in the US have decided to switch to: paper bags and paper-based containers. When evaluating the sustainability of paper versus plastic bags, one metric observed is total emissions released when either are produced. While plastic bags are non-decomposable, the paper alternative requires more fossil fuels to be produced. Furthermore, many trees are lost when paper bags are used on a large scale. While it is difficult to quantify exactly how much strain paper bags put on the environment versus plastic, it is clear that both have very different effects. For paper, continued use of paper products seems to affect the atmosphere as well as forests in a more negative way, as commercial forests need to keep growing to feed demand for paper goods. As more and more trees are taken away, the emissions released from both paper and plastic remain airborne for longer. As a whole, the best approach to take when it comes to reducing emissions and pollution through switching what containers we use comes down to evaluating short and long term environmental impacts, and specific effects that their usage has on the world in both urban and rural settings. 

Sources: https://stanfordmag.org/contents/paper-plastic-or-reusable#:~:text=Paper%20bags%20are%20biodegradable%20and,paper%20has%20longer%2C%20stronger%20fibers., https://www.bagtheban.com/learn-the-facts/environment/, https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/plastic-planet-how-tiny-plastic-particles-are-polluting-our-soil#:~:text=Much%20of%20it%20ends%20up,negative%20effect%20on%20such%20ecosystems.