Killing wildlife 5. Heres Why That Matters. In Staten Island, perhaps? The measure now under consideration in Massachusetts, for example, would mandate that single-use paper bags contain at least 40 percent recycled fiber. ETHAN: Plastic bag bans also can negatively affect businesses. Ad Choices, Banning Plastic Bags Is Great for the World, Right? Two weeks ago, the Massachusetts State Senate passed a measure that would ban plastic bags from being dispensed by many retail businesses and require a charge of 10 cents or more for a recycled paper or reusable bag. ETHAN: Another thing I wanted to bring up part of why I was so excited to talk to you is that there is the word behavioral economics in your work. ETHAN: Its true. In 2018 though, 68.1 percent of paper consumed in the United States was recovered for recycling, which is a really impressive number, although its worth noting that paper fibers become weaker each time theyre recycled, so there are still limitations to that. Ironic.plastic is still better than cloth, but it just has to be more than single-use. The Bad Astronomer Takes You on a Tour of the Cosmos. ETHAN: Specifically, well be talking about grocery bags. Not So Fast Advocates for plastic bag bans often neglect to ask what will replace plastic bags and what the environmental impact of that replacement will be. The ideal city bag policy would probably involve charging for paper and plastic single-use bags, as New York City has decided to do, while giving out reusable recycled-plastic bags to those who need them, especially to low-income communities and seniors. With respect to the bonuses we talked about. And those seven ethylene projects are concentrated in just three counties in Texas: Harris County, Jefferson County, and Brazoria County. Some people still keep streaks, I think! Salt Marshes Are Essential Climate Solutions. Eastern Hemlocks Are Declining. Remember when I said petrochemical facilities use natural gas for electricity? All of these policies give consumers a little more freedom, but try to nudge them in the right direction through small fees or rewards in the 5 to 15 cent per bag range. Now thats just one set of data, but I hope my point is clear: the production of our plastic bags causes harmful air pollution, and that pollution disproportionately hits low income and minority communities. The Ike Dike is the Army Corps of Engineers largest project ever. Paper does have its own environmental consequences in terms of how much energy it takes to generate, acknowledges Emily Norton, director of the Massachusetts Sierra Club. Only 2.4 percent of the worlds cropland is planted with cotton, yet it accounts for 24 percent of the global market for insecticides and 11 percent for pesticides, the World Wildlife Fund reports. [deep echoey filter] ITS INSATIABLE! Wait, sorry, wrong kind of cracker. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. Whereas the small taxes are very effective. The opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the host and guests. The first time you say your dog ate it, its a funny story, but by the fifth time, youre definitely going to fail first grade. The Australian study concluded that the best option appears to be a reusable bag, but one made from recycled plastic, not cotton. What do they think this is, a Ritz quick scheme? The shift from one single-use bag to another single-use bag may improve one environmental outcome, but be offset by another environmental impact.. Capacitors. Its not easy being a green consumer, in part because there are these different dimensions of environmental impact. If your chief concern is climate change, things get even muddier. Throwing This Out Here: Plastic Bags Are Amazing and You Should Appreciate Them More, Trash Is Ugly, But Recycling Is Downright Beautiful. Thats right, its always the one you most suspect. Obviously, a cotton tote does have a much longer life than a plastic or paper bag, but we also have to be honest with ourselves. People still need bags to bring home their groceries. NADJA: Its perfectly harmless, Laszlo. All three counties are majority minority, the first two are over a third low income, and according to data from Texas Rising, if you rank all 254 counties in Texas for the overall environmental and social burdens they face, these three counties come in at #3, #8, and #53. TAYLOR: Yes, how much people actually reuse the various types of reusable bags has a big impact on their environmental impact. So is there anything you would suggest to policymakers as they tried to address the issue? This story originally appeared on Grist and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration. What Comes Next for Venezuelas Oil Industry? ETHAN: And that wraps up episode 106 of The Sweaty Penguin. I personally dont care much what kind of bag my groceries are in, Id even take a Hello Kitty bag if it meant my eggs got home without breaking, but Im sure some people really love their plastic bags, and for those that do, this is certainly an intriguing possibility. 2. Oil and natural gas are also made of carbon and hydrogen, so in addition to using them for energy, we process them into plastic. What a deal! TAYLOR: Yes. Last month, the New York City Council passed a 5-cent-per-bag fee on single-use bags handed out by most retailers. There are so very many variables. 4 Absent the fee, which provides the economic incentive to bring reusable bags to the store, simple bans tend to shift consumers from one type . NADJA: After much deliberation, Nandor and I have invited a new resident into the house. Thats one idea that Ive seen floated all over the internet. That way youre reducing the amount of material thats going into the product, but you still want it to be something that youll actually find convenient and reuse with you. Like, get a life, man. But are bans on plastic bags or reusable alternatives like tote or canvas bags viable solutions to the worlds plastic problem? bags, or maybe even stop keeping bags at the register at all. The reasons for papers higher carbon footprint are complex, but can mostly be understood as stemming from the fact that paper bags are much thicker than plastic bags. Both authors of these essays specifically speak about how the use of plastic can be harmful for the mother-nature, and have introduced ways to compensate this loss. The remaining 21 percent, of course, came from the Kardashians. But what if reusable bags arent good either? Microplastics can be ingested by anyone from seabirds to fish to even humans through our food and water, and can cause health issues, reduce appetites, and even increase the risk of mortality. Doing either earns you a special shoutout at the end of the show; joining the Patreon gets you merch, bonus content, and a whole lot more. One of the most comprehensive research papers on the environmental impact of bags, published in 2007 by an Australian state government agency, found that paper bags have a higher carbon footprint than plastic. They say Hanukkah gets eight nights as if its special, but with Christmas, you get six whole months! ETHAN: But first, its time for Plastic Bags 101. To support our nonprofit environmental journalism, please consider disabling your ad-blocker to allow ads on Grist. I guess the name does make sense. First, we transport our fossil fuels to a type of petrochemical plant called a cracker. Cracker? How do we make polyethylene? So that means fewer animals getting entangled over time which is good, but unfortunately, it also means plastic bags take a lot less time to become microplastics. Anyway, at a cracker plant, they use extreme heat to crack the molecular bonds in the oil or gas to produce a new gas called ethylene. ETHAN: So just to wrap up this point, would you say that its a net positive or negative? So paper and plastic as litter paper, you know, decomposes, it breaks down, its not as harmful to the environment, if it if its litter. So have at least 88 localities in California, including the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco, plus cities and towns in more than a dozen other states and more than a dozen other countries. And an estimated 10 million tons of plastic are discarded in the ocean yearly. Banning Plastic Bags Is Great for the World, Right? Here's How. The only newsroom focused on exploring solutions at the intersection of climate and justice. As far as I know, nobody has done the definitive analysis, which would necessarily need to have a large number of caveats and qualifications. So what was this paper about and what were your findings? Phytoplankton: How Too Much of a Good Thing Causes Problems. Physicists Rewrite a Quantum Rule That Clashes With Our Universe. And then sometimes theres these added responses that are unintended. Unlike reusable fabric bags, plastic bags can take lifetimes to biodegrade.Over that time, their light weight allows them to be carried long distances, causing environmental havoc along the way. Plastic Bags Are a Problem. Natasha Mascarenhas. Im curious, in your work looking at plastic bags or plastic in general, if there have been any cases of people being irrational actors in the market that just really surprised you or stood out to you. Fees have a smaller, but still significant, effect. 1999-2023 Grist Magazine, Inc. All rights reserved. The first time you say your dog ate it, its a funny story, but by the fifth time, youre definitely going to fail first grade. Heres why thats a big deal. As the Australian study noted, a cotton bag has major environmental impacts of its own. Maybe call the manager over or fly the CEO in on a helicopter or pull the fire alarm so everyone starts screaming and running. The Permian Basin Hosts the Highest Emitting Oil and Gas Project in North America. Start with your washing machine. People look at [paper] and say its degradable, therefore its much better for the environment, but its not in terms of climate change impact, says David Tyler, a professor of chemistry at the University of Oregon who has examined the research on the environmental impact of bag use. The adverse impacts of plastic bags are undeniable: When theyre not piling up in landfills, theyre blocking storm drains, littering streets, getting stuck in trees, and contaminating oceans, where fish, seabirds, and other marine animals eat them or get tangled up in them. ETHAN: That new ban was signed into law on September 30, and the fact that it was in the news goes to show that even with all the other things going on in the world, people are paying attention to this issue. Advocates for plastic bag bans often neglect to ask what will replace plastic bags and what the environmental impact of that replacement will be. The one perk with bans is that its by far the easiest policy to explain and enforce. 12:48 PM PDT March 16, 2023. Despite the good intentions of these new rules, plastic bag bans are problematic for a few reasons. Its like time outs. Twitter, Follow us on Then, that ethylene can be sent to a new plant where theyll add a catalyst which initiates a chemical reaction and forms our high-density polyethylene. Thats right, go get that bag. Not So Fast. If your chief concern is climate change, things get even muddier. [wrong buzzer, rewind] Cracker? You start growing weird pimples at 10, youre crying five times a week at 15, and by 20, someone has to carry you into a therapists office, throw you on the couch, and say its broken, fix it. For plastic though, 20 years is much less time than most other single-use plastic products. Thats the percentage the Massachusetts Sierra Club has advocated for at the state level and when lobbying for municipal bag rules. A single mom, or someone working two jobs, is more likely to have to do her shopping in a rush on the way home from work than to go out specifically with a tote bag in hand. Take two minutes, help out the show, and get a shoutout at the end of the show by leaving a five star rating and a review on Apple or Podcast Addict OR join our Patreon at patreon.com/thesweatypenguin. And so my recommendation is to use as few bags as you can reuse the ones that you do purchase and purchase your bags, make it an active decision. In all seriousness, theres drawbacks here too. ETHAN: The Sweaty Penguin is presented by Peril and Promise: a public media initiative from The WNET Group in New York, reporting on the issues and solutions around climate change. Now a hybrid ban, where you ban a particular thin plastic or film plastic, as long as theres also consideration for the other types of bags such as paper bags, and reusable bags, and requiring stores to charge for those other bags. Even studies conducted with the purest of intentions depend on any number of assumptions. But what I do know I find so fascinating. It honestly sounds like a superhero, doesnt it? This is often called border shopping. But on the other hand, paper has a much higher carbon footprint than plastic, its much more water intensive, its much more energy intensive to produce. Cracker plants release air pollutants such as benzene which is linked to cancer and childhood leukemia, toluene which is linked to birth defects and brain, liver, and kidney problems, formaldehyde which is a known carcinogen, and particulate matter which is linked to cardiovascular and respiratory disease and lung and bladder cancer. Facebook, Follow us on If a plastic bag is reused in the home as the garbage bag in a bathroom waste bin, does that reduce its footprint by eliminating the need for another small plastic garbage bag? Yes, this was a paper that was interested in how sometimes we dont always think about how people respond to policies, theyre sort of the obvious response. Eat one less meat dish a weekthats what will have a real impact on the environment, says Tyler. Come on, why have we not tried this yet? Before I jump in, were trying out a little bit of a different format today. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy. ETHAN: Hopefully ethylene makes its What We Do In The Shadows debut in season five. Cotton is a crop that requires massive amounts of water and energy to produce. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); A nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. And so many of these supermarkets have actually rolled back their policies. And you even have some states, at least 17 in the US who have actually banned bag bans, banned regulating bags in general. But thats not to say plastic bag recycling couldnt be more widely implemented. In all seriousness, theres drawbacks here too. debut in season five. Now, a new law hopes to take things a step further by banning these: single-use plastic pre-checkout bags that are not recyclable and can contaminate compost facilities. There are eight states that ban single-use plastic bags, and these are Oregon, Vermont, California, Hawaii, Delaware, New York, Maine, and Connecticut. (Cindy) Works Cited. Banning Plastic Bags Is Great for the World, Right? And just a few weeks ago, California took it one step further, banning not just single-use plastic bags at checkout, but those smaller produce bags as well. I guess the name does make sense. The larger takeaway is that no bag is free of environmental impact, whether thats contributing to climate change, ocean pollution, water scarcity, or pesticide use. Thats the percentage the Massachusetts Sierra Club has advocated for at the state level and when lobbying for municipal bag rules. In fact, we can take it a step further. But when ethylene gas escapes the facility and is exposed to sunlight, it turns to smog, which has been associated with increased rates of asthma, lung and respiratory infections, and cardiovascular problems. And in particular, stores start offering thicker plastic bags and sticker paper bags for free. The reasons for papers higher carbon footprint are complex, but can mostly be understood as stemming from the fact that paper bags are much thicker than plastic bags. Once ethylene is turned into plastic, its not harmful, youre not going to get a disease just by touching a plastic bag, unless its March 2020 when every cashier in America was convinced thats how Covid spreads. New York State and Hawaii just passed theirs, set to go into effect in 2020, and California's bag ban, which was passed in 2014, has been shown to have reduced plastic bag usage by 85 percent . A lovely tote made from single use plastic bags. Often, the problem shifts. You would think five cents to reuse a bag would have a state similar behavioral response is five cents to not use a bag to have to pay for than plastic bag. Wait, sorry, wrong kind of cracker. The Search for Long Covid Treatments Takes a Promising Turn. Plastic bags not only destroy the physical infrastructure, she says, referring to the way they clog up storm drains and other systems, they contribute to emissions. And she points out that marine plastic pollution is a threat to low-income people who fish for their dinner: So many frontline communities depend on food coming from the ocean. Thats why her group supported New York Citys bag fee even though its more of a burden on lower-income citizens. "Banning Plastic Bags Is Great for the World, Right? In fact, 79 percent of microplastics sampled in the marine environment originated from polyethylene specifically. So thats exactly what I did. The measure now under consideration in Massachusetts, for example, would mandate that single-use paper bags contain at least 40 percent recycled fiber. Seeing how nuanced this issue is, I asked Dr. Taylor what the next steps could look like. Like blueberries or trips to the bathroom, not all plastics are created equal, and single-use plastic bags are typically made from a material called high-density polyethylene. WIRED may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. And the most common substitute, paper bags, may be just as bad or worse, depending on the environmental problem youre most concerned about. California and Hawaii banned them, then New York. Thats primarily because more energy is required to produce and transport paper bags. On one hand, we are reducing the amount of litter. In a rational model. Nearly one year after New York became the second state in the nation to pass a ban on grocery store plastic bags the law is going into effect on Sunday. These residents are trying to keep them out. document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Like cigarettes, plastic bags have recently gone from a tolerated nuisance to a widely despised and discouraged vice. To help combat this waste, several American states have enacted bans on plastic grocery bags. Not So Fast" by Ben Adler focuses on the states attempting to end giving out plastic bags for free hoping to reduce plastic waste. In addition to being my celebrity couple name with a girl named Polly, polyethylene is a string of carbon and hydrogen atoms. Often they need to be reused at least 100, if not more times, to be more environmentally friendly than those thin plastic bags that were so familiar with. Two weeks ago, the Massachusetts State Senate passed a measure that would ban plastic bags from being dispensed by many retail businesses and require a charge of 10 cents or more for a recycled paper or reusable bag. You can order the T-shirt plastic bags in wholesale from Bags . Winters are becoming less and less predictable due to climate change, but you dont have to worry because the second you put on a long sleeve shirt and jeans, youll be hearing Mariah Carey blast on every radio in town. It is the essential source of information and ideas that make sense of a world in constant transformation. Not So Fast Like cigarettes, plastic bags have recently gone from a tolerated nuisance to a widely despised and discouraged vice. Rather than automatically using a bag, just ask the customer for their bags, or maybe even stop keeping bags at the register at all. Cracker? No, of course not. And cotton, unlike paper, is not currently recycled in most places. Every year, around 500 billion plastic grocery bags are used worldwide. The Massachusetts proposal may not become law this year, but its the latest sign that the plastic bag industry is losing this war. Washington, DCs government estimates that its 5-cent bag tax has led to a 60 percent reduction in the number of these bags being used, although that figure is contested by other sources. Im really proud of this one and I hope you enjoy it! And the most common substitute, paper bags, may be just as bad or worse, depending on the environmental problem youre most concerned about. Spoiler alert: plastics parents got divorced at age eleven and it still isnt over it. Not So Fast by Ben Adler The author of the piece Ben Adler agrees that plastic bags have an adverse impact on the environment. Thats like opening a Papa Johns right next to a Little Caesars. Right now, one of the best ways to help Grist continue to thrive is by becoming a monthly member. Again, because this is what I tell people all the time. Single-use plastics seem to be disappearing. All donations matched! If someone wants a straw, they can ask and get it, no questions asked. If you melt a plastic bag down, you can absolutely recycle that polyethylene, and in fact, recycled high-density polyethylene has about a third of the carbon footprint of virgin high-density polyethylene. And thats actually increasing the carbon footprint. 1. If we do that, well see less polluted oceans, improved public health, and maybe, for the first time in history, Polly wont want a cracker. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions or views of Peril and Promise or The WNET Group. Wonder why you hear about legislation concerning plastic bags? Whos building these things, Triscuit? But if communicated to the public well, I think its an interesting idea, and Id be curious to see if a similar approach could work with bags. We talked about a whole list of issues in our first segment, and those dont vanish. Nakuru, Kenya In the open-air Wakulima Market thin plastic shopping bags have disappeared, banished by Kenya's national bag ban. YouTube, Follow us on Design and build by Upstatement. You know, thats a bit of sort of the speculation of why these behavioral changes occurred. "Exactly what happens to a plastic bag when it is littered depends very much on where it enters the environment and the mechanisms that cause it . And beyond that, ethylene itself is a dangerous pollutant. Thicker, reusable bags are still available for purchase for 10 cents. Not only are there these human health concerns, but crackers and other petrochemical facilities are not located very fairly. And so this was an unintended consequence of the policy. Then Oregon, Connecticut, Maine and Vermont passed laws against them. They increase their sales by almost 120%. NADJA: Will you at least go and talk to it? Already in Massachusetts, 32 towns and cities have passed bag bans or fees. ETHAN: And youve written several papers on plastic bags, Ill start with your paper that won the Journal of Environmental Economics and Managements Best Paper Prize in 2020, which discussed some of the unintended consequences of plastic bag bans. ITS PAPER. Thats right, I said it. ETHAN: I think this paper that you did goes to a larger conversation about plastic because we do often zero in on specific products, will complain about straws or about bags or about bottles. "Banning Plastic Bags Is Great For The World, Right? So if you have a policy in your own city, but the next city over doesnt, and you decide to shop in then next city over to avoid the policy. A Canadian Gas Field Is Polluting First Nation Communities, How Climate Change, Poverty, and Social Stigma Affect Menstrual Hygiene. Now, obviously, there are still benefits of reducing our consumption of plastic. One of the biggest battery recycling plants in theUSis up and running. Some social justice activists who work in low-income urban neighborhoods or communities of color also argue that plastic bags are a particular scourge. I hope at least one of those cracked you up. In the case of using a tax, the government is also then able to raise some money, which can be used to either lower taxes elsewhere or go toward environmental cleanup efforts or most importantly, turning Niagara Falls into a waterslide. Americans consume more than 10 billion paper bags annually, which is equivalent to 14 million trees. Bag bans seem to be all the rage, but its not the only option. Theres no easy answer, says Eric Goldstein, New York City environment director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, which backed NYCs bag fee. So I was really interested to see what the data would say about this were people having to buy more garbage bags now that the plastic bags that they got from grocery stores were no longer available. Also, this question is something like asking, Would you prefer to get a parking ticket or a tax assessment? It depends on the specifics, but its better to avoid both wherever possible. Goldstein is confident that if people switch to reusable bags, even cotton ones, and use them consistently, that will ultimately be better for the environment. Theyre less than five millimeters across and they are everywhere, from the oceans to mountaintops to the Arctic to our food and blood. On the other hand, were using thicker bags, which might be emitting more carbon and pollution into the atmosphere. How do we make polyethylene? So some of my recent research was looking at to what extent do we actually see border shopping occur? LASZLO: What I want to know is why I wasnt consulted in inviting this creature into our home. You can learn more at pbs.org/perilandpromise. New clinical trials could more effectively reach solutions. Others, like in New York City, treat all single-use bags equally. Yeah, that was even rough for my standards. With a referendum in November 2016, California became the first state to ban single-use plastic bags, according to the National Conference on State Legislatures, which keeps an active list of American laws. Waste in particular, plastic packaging, how it is used, how it gets discarded. Thats primarily because more energy is required to produce and transport paper bags. As compared to plastic bags, paper bags also require significantly more energy and water to manufacture, and more energy to transport since theyre heavier. Electrify everything, California says including trucks and trains. So its a bit nuanced. This paper in particular was interested in a California policy, which is a ban on thin plastic, carry out bags, and a fee for paper bags of about 10 cents, usually, sometimes five cents. Of those 48, 16 had publicly available air pollution data, so I took a look at that group. There was a 72 percent drop in grocery bag litter in the state just one year after it was fully implemented. 500 billion plastic grocery bags are used worldwide. TAYLOR: Yeah, I would love to see the conversation, sort of move more. WIRED 181k followers More information Banning Plastic Bags Is Great for the World, Right? The Massachusetts proposal may not become law this year, but it's the latest sign that the plastic bag industry is losing this war. Recently, many politicians were in such a hurry to ban plastic bags. So I often tell people, if theyre choosing a bag, you want to choose a bag that you are going to reuse that could be a thin bag, then plastic bag, or it could be a nylon bag, which is technically still plastic, but is a woven plastic thats fairly lightweight, and thus, perhaps not going to have the same environmental impact as a heavier plastic or a cloth bag. Made from fossil fuels 3.

Richard Griffiths Reneuron, Houses For Rent By Owner In Lynwood, Ca, C Cell Tube End Caps, Houses For Rent Under $600, Articles B