Banning plastic bags to preserve the environment

By Julio Alberto Cruz
June 14th, 2010
Section: Blogs - The CSUN Footprint

MarineBio/Flickr

The California State Assembly passed the ban on single-use plastic bags (AB 1998) on June 2.

Hilex Poly, LLC, a manufacturer of plastic bags, has suggested that cutting plastic bags will cut jobs. Their defense, like others oppose to the ban, is that the ban is not doing much to conserve the environment.

Plastic bags swirl around in the ocean for 500 years and harm wildlife.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has reported that there have been sea animals, including birds, chocking and dying from plastic bags, confusing them for food.

Environment California, a citizen-based environmental advocacy organization, is urging celebrities, business owners and citizens to support the bill.

People can visit their website to donate, pledge or simply share it with their friends.

San Francisco has already banned the use of plastic bags in supermarkets and other cities, like Los Angeles, are working on it.

As citizens of our environment, we should urge our own markets to stop using plastic bags. Purchasing a reusable bag can make a difference. Some grocery stores, like Trader Joe’s, enter you in a weekly drawing of a $10 store gift card if you bring your own bag (BYOB).

Since it is still inevitable to avoid plastic bags as of now, there are a few things that can be done in the mean time. Try to reuse plastic bags as much as possible and recycle them when they tear. Investing in a good cloth bag is another option.

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  • Recycle

    Thank you for writing about this! What an important issue. It reminds me of the kind of stuff I often see at http://www.youtube.com/greenopolistv and it’s always great to be educated and kept up to date on what’s going on!

  • lisa

    This reads more like a insult list more than an article…kind of along the lines of kids jokes like “your momma is so…”. I dont think the debate is so black and white as you are trying to make it.

    “The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has reported that there have been sea animals, including birds, chocking and dying from plastic bags, confusing them for food.”

    and

    “Plastic bags swirl around in the ocean for 500 years and harm wildlife.”

    …both have no citation of where they came from

    Also with all of the other plastics in the world, how will this one product being banned preserve the environment.

    With California at 12.4% unemployment (link provided http://data.bls.gov/map/servlet/map.servlet.MapToolServlet?survey=la ) I am sure anyone with a job threatend by the ban may see it a bit different.

    After looking at the Corporate site you provided it showed they are doing something by recycling plastic bags and using recycled content to make their product (again link provided http://hilexpoly.com/ )

  • DTB

    Most of the plastic bags at the grocery store are made in America. The bulk of the reusable bags are made in Chinese sweatshops and other Third World countries.

    Salmonella and e. coli bacteria can survive a long time on the material used in the reusable bags. You’ll have to wash the reusable bags every time you use them to purchase chicken, fish or meat. That means using water and laundry detergent (which comes in plastic containers!).

    If a private citizen wants to purchase and use the reusable bags, then that’s their decision. However, it is NOT the government’s job to mandate it due to misguided quasi-environmentalism.

  • El Ciego

    A statement that bags “swirl around the ocean for 500 years” is about as credible as “canvas bags cause cancer”. Give me a break! Single use bags are used for trash liners, dog walking, storing Christmas decorations…I could go on. We will still need plastic bags but won’t be willing to pay for the single use ones so will be using heavier mil products and fouling the enviornment even more and at greater expense.