Our reliance on plastic bags is both good and bad. They are simultaneously a boon because they’re convenient, and an anathema because they degrade the environment.
The options to reduce plastic-bag usage that the Tucson City Council is considering are (a) to try to educate Tucsonans over the next two years and thus reduce bag use by 50 percent (an unfunded mandate), and (b) if the effort fails after two years, the mayor and council members would then implement other measures to reduce or ban bag use.
The City Council is tentatively scheduled for an afternoon study session on the plastic- bag issue on Wednesday, Nov. 14. The League of Women Voters of Greater Tucson, which has a mandate to help communities learn what they can do “at the individual and household levels to save energy and reduce our carbon footprint,” is monitoring the City Council’s actions, said league president Phylis Carnahan.
Single-use plastic bags, or SUPBs, are made from high-density polyethylene, a petroleum-based plastic. Introduced in the 1970s as an alternative to paper bags, they now make up 80 percent of bags distributed at grocery stores.
Let’s discuss why a plastic-bags study is in order:
• The American Chemistry Council estimates Americans use more than 93 billion plastic bags per year, or about 300 bags per person.
• The Pima Association of Governments estimates the Tucson region consumes more than 182 million disposable plastic bags per year. (City Councilman Paul Cunningham’s Jan. 23 memo brought the issue to the council’s attention.)
• Single-use plastic carry-out bags have an average use time of 12 minutes and are made from petrochemicals that require significant environmental resources to manufacture, transport, recycle and dispose of.
But plastic bags are light, strong and convenient—why not use them?
Cunningham says the impact of plastic bags presents a growing threat to our environment on multiple levels. “Every square mile of ocean has about 46,000 pieces of plastic floating in it,” Cunningham’s memo said. “Plastic does not bio-degrade, but rather photo-degrades, meaning plastic breaks down into smaller fragments which soak up toxins, contaminating soil and waterways and killing sea animals who digest them. Plastic bag ‘birds’ can be seen blowing through the air or caught on cactus, trees or shrubs.”
Plastic bags were the third-largest entangling debris for marine animals found in the 2009 International Coastal Cleanup. (First and second were fishing lines and nets, respectively.) The World Wildlife Fund says that 100,000 whales, seals and turtles die every year as a result of eating or being trapped by plastic bags.
In 2009, the city of Tucson adopted Ordinance 10642 to establish plastic-bag recycling requirements for major retail establishments such as Safeway, Bashas’, Walmart, Target and others that provide carry-out plastic bags for their customers. The rate of recycling was 45 percent for Tucson in its second year (ending in September 2011), according to the Arizona Food Marketing Alliance and the Arizona Retailers Association.
But SUPBs are hard to recycle, because they are not biodegradable in landfills. Only 4.5 percent are recycled nationally because they are also hard to sort, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Both Tim McCabe, CEO of the Arizona Food Marketing Alliance, and Mike Varney, president of the Tucson Metro Chamber, are against any bag ban that would include fees. Both want to promote awareness and education of the voluntary program Bag Central.
“There is no need for government to mandate or implement bag fees or taxes,” McCabe said, adding they would “create hardships on consumers struggling in today’s tough economy.”
Varney said the chamber’s concern grows when “the heavy hand of government is raised” and removes consumer choice, adding to a company’s operating expenses.
Katherine Kent is head of the city’s Small, Minority, and Women-Owned Business Commission and a member of the city’s Single Use Plastic Bag Committee, established in March 2012 to recommend options to reduce the consumption of plastic bags and increase recycling. Kent said her commission voted Oct. 25 to recommend banning the bags and send “a strong message” that plastics should be used in medicine, such as for pacemakers, and to make lighter cars, but not to make plastic bags.
Get the facts, then decide for yourself whether plastic bags are worth it.
This article appears in Nov 8-14, 2012.
Thank you Tucson Weekly/Maxine. Alternative energy=less plastic bags=shift in global warming=future for our grandchildren.
“The rate of recycling was 45 percent for Tucson in its second year.”
This plastic bag recycling rate is inaccurate. In calculating this percentage, “recycled plastic bags and FILM PLASTIC” are compared to “estimates of plastic bags used.” Not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison when you consider the ENORMOUS amount of film plastic generated by retailers and grocers from the pallet deliveries they receive. This amount of film plastic skews the reported recycling rate upward. When members of the city’s Plastic Bag Committee took a look at these numbers in more detail – and toured Basha’s recycling facility – their estimate shows that Tucson’s plastic bag recycling rate is probably not much different than the national average (4.5% as reported by the EPA).
Here is a pertinent question to ask in the plastic bag debate: why are we using such a high valued natural resource (be it natural gas or petroleum) to create such a non-durable and short-lived product?
I’d like to see grocery stores go back to renewable, biodegradable paper bags, packed properly. Instead, mindless clerks toss a few random items in each of many plastic bags. Groceries spill out of them in the car, and the consumer winds up with strewn stuff and lots of plastic bags to haul into the house, instead of a much smaller number of carefully packed paper bags. Let’s bring back paper bags and train the clerks how to pack groceries in them.
Let’s use recycled cloth bags. I usually take 3 or 4 cloth bags with me when I shop and they are very durable and can be used for years and years. They can be cleaned by washing them in the washer and hung out to dry. No reason to use plastic or paper bags anymore and stores can offer them free to low income people. The stores would probably save thousands of dollars a year if they stopped offering plastic and paper bags. Thanks TW for this very important article.
Talking about plastic, what about plastic bottles, soda cans, glass bottles those items that could be refunded back to a place for a 10 cents refund. Get the streets, deserts, mountains cleaned up of trash. Going up to any mountain in AZ and looking down off a viewing site. It is a trash dump of cans, bottles and garbage, But our Republicans law makers seems to prefer getting funds from those lobbyist instead of passing bills to clear up Arizona. Yes. payments to our law makers is more important then keeping AZ clean.
It is a disgrace to visitors to see the trash in Tucson, and AZ.
Lets get a PROP on the ballot to allow voters to have a say on returnable and not our law makers who prefer taking kickbacks by turning their backs on the trash.
People let your voice be heard.
Both Tim McCabe, CEO of the Arizona Food Marketing Alliance, and Mike Varney, president of the Tucson Metro Chamber, of course these big lobbyist would be against any solutions by making up all kinds of excuses. Varney is against jobs in the state. He is against anything that would make Tucson better. The head of national chamber of commerce is for outsourcing of jobs to China. He has written about it. Get wise people and don’t let a few run your lives. Speak up against those few that prefer trashed streets, deserts and mountains sides.
“There is no need for government to mandate or implement bag fees or taxes,” McCabe said, adding they would “create hardships on consumers struggling in today’s tough economy.” This is just plain B*ll SH*t by McCabe.
economy has nothing to do with recycling bottles, cans bags, etc. These guys love the pollution of the cities/states. That is why they want to do away with the EPA FDA. Agencies that protect the American people.
Protest to your representatives and demand changes on bottle and can returns.
Senile Brewer, so far has given it a deaf ear.
I like the plastic bags from the store because I use them for my trash cans in the house and RV and I then do not have to purchase trash bags. I would never use the paper bags in the trash cans because they will not handle anything that is wet. I also will use the plastic bags in place of packing peanuts when shipping gifts to the grandkids. The problem is not so much the bags as the way the puplic is not re-using them. I also step forward at the store to bag my own groceries or tell the bagger to fill them to cut down on the number used. I think the cloth bags are very unsanitary. for I have been behind customers that toss their very dirty bags on the check out line and expect the next person in line not to care.