As many of you may know, on Tuesday, August 31, California Bill AB 1998, or the commonly called "Plastic Bag Ban Bill," was rejected by the California Senate. The Ban would have prohibited large retailers from distributing plastic bags to California consumers by 2012, and would have applied to smaller stores by 2013. Currently, California residents use 19 billion single-use bags each year, and it costs an estimated $25 million to collect and dispose of them.
While I'm bummed about AB 1998 being rejected, it's not the end of the world. A ban on plastic bags would have forced more vendors to switch to paper bags, which is really not a solution to the problem of high landfill waste and other pollution. Even though plastic bags don't disintegrate and are expensive to recycle, paper bags can require massive amounts of energy and be even more polluting to produce (although I will say, a single paper bag can hold much more than the typical plastic bag, and outside of their use as totes, the reusability of a paper bag is arguably higher, and they can be composted).
In any case, for certain, weekly visits to the market are currently some of the most destructive of human activities. These visits are doubly or triply destructive when we make them unthinkingly. Bag waste, and the energy that goes into producing bags of both types are just one part of this equation. But this fraction is significant - especially when you consider that it's altogether unnecessary.
I might also mention that recycling is not a viable green option when it comes to plastic bags. As I mentioned before, it's extremely expensive to recycle plastic bags, partly due to the fact that the plastic in bags is already so flimsy that when it gets recycled it becomes even less valuable. Because it doesn't make good business sense to recycle plastic bags, a good portion of those set for the recycling center end up getting burned for energy, either here in the U.S., or in countries like China, where environmental regulations are more lax. But the majority, as we know, end up in landfills.
The only real solution to this particular pollution problem is for us to change our behavior. In a sense, one might say, we just need to stop being lazy. Bring a bag, or bags, with you when you go out. Stop using produce bags for your peaches and lettuce. Get a few good strong drawstring bags and use those instead. Make a habit of saying "no" when clerks ask you if you want a bag. Who said that every trash can needs a liner? Take the whole can out to the curb to dump it. Give it a rinse if its smelly. Instead of putting chores off in order to catch the latest episode of that reality TV show you love, determine what you can change in your life in order to be a better citizen of the planet (like, for instance, making your home clean and green).
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