End the Plastic Bag!

Multiple “left-leaning” cities in America have taken steps toward saving the environment through the implementation of plastic bag bans. In 2007, San Francisco became the first US city to ban the use of plastic grocery bags in large supermarket and pharmacy chains. Since then, cities like Austin, Texas; Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington have followed suit. As of June 18, 2013, Los Angeles, California has become the largest American city to approve an anti-plastic-bag ordinance that applies well beyond the typical realm of food stores and mini-marts.

Large retail chains with their own grocery departments (Target, Walmart) will also be forced to quit giving away single-use plastic bags starting the first of January next year. They will have six months to continue packing merchandise in plastics, after that they will have six months to issue free paper bags. When a year has passed, retailers will be allowed to charge a fee of ten cents per paper bag to encourage shoppers to bring their own reusable bags. Businesses that fail to uphold the law will face a fine of $100 for their first offense.

For years the struggle to abandon plastic bags has plagued the city of LA and other cities with environmentally-conscious communities. It is a hot topic that faces many metropolitan areas in which plastic bags cost thousands of dollars in damage when they get stuck in drains, clog landfills, and jam recycling machinery. The cities of Chicago and New York City are currently contemplating similar legislation as residents have become numb to the sight of bags dotting trees, streets, sidewalks, fences, shrubs, lakes, and oceans.

An estimated 46,000 pieces of floating plastic contaminate each square mile of ocean on the earth’s surface. Plastic bags choke millions of sea creatures a year. What’s more? They take 700-1000 years to break down into invisible toxic particles that pollute the air (so they never truly “break down”). That makes it possible for multiple animals to choke on just a single bag over the years it takes the bag to turn to “plastic dust.” A bag that chokes a whale or turtle to death can easily float ashore and choke a bird once the whale has decomposed.

Despite the breadth of reasons for eradicating the use of plastic bags, many are in opposition to the environmentally-sound movement. Shoppers and business owners believe the bans will cause a hike in prices as the retailers would need to spend more money to provide paper bags or reusable bags. People for the movement believe shoppers will quickly adjust to bringing along their own reusable shopping bags which can carry up to three times more weight than a single plastic bag. Still, many also worry over the losses of jobs a plastic bag ban would create and the potential health hazards reusable shopping bags pose.