ETHAN: Its true. Shortly after, the Massachusetts State Senate passed a measure that would ban plastic bags from being dispensed by many retail businesses and require acharge of 10 cents or more for a recycled paper or reusable bag. I also got retail data from the store on what people were purchasing, in particular, what kinds of garbage bags they were purchasing. Heres why thats a big deal. But that tiny switch makes it so people dont feel different or left out if they dont have a straw. Will we use our cotton tote hundreds or thousands of times? ETHAN: So just to wrap up this point, would you say that its a net positive or negative? bags, or maybe even stop keeping bags at the register at all. You can conceive of the possibility of collecting plastic bags from the ocean, but microplastics are almost impossible to remove from their environments. There was a 72 percent drop in grocery bag litter in the state just one year after it was fully implemented. Reader support helps sustain our work. by John Stossel | May 5, 2020. Not only are there these human health concerns, but crackers and other petrochemical facilities are not located very fairly. 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. They are not the largest sources of plastic pollution Plastic waste is indeed a. So what this tells us is that people were actually doing this very green thing. On the disposal side, single-use plastic bags are currently not recyclable, but thats because the bags are so flimsy they can get caught in the machinery. So if its, if it makes it into the environment, it stays there, it breaks into smaller pieces, it gets blown around the world, many different ecosystems. High costs for cleanup 8. I asked Dr. Taylor how we can account for the cost of alternatives when we create policies to address plastic bags. The WIRED conversation illuminates how technology is changing every aspect of our livesfrom culture to business, science to design. Thats the percentage the Massachusetts Sierra Club has advocated for at the state level and when lobbying for municipal bag rules. The remaining 21 percent, of course, came from the Kardashians. 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. But are bans on plastic bags or reusable alternatives like tote or canvas bags viable solutions to the worlds plastic problem? Back to those three Rs we learned when we were in elementary school, the reduce the Reuse and Recycle. So the unintended consequences. Then Christmas is for you. Banning Plastic Bags Is Great for the World, Right? Not So Fast 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. Not so fast. Not So Fast Like cigarettes, plastic bags have recently gone from a tolerated nuisance to a widely despised and discouraged vice. There was a 72 percent drop in grocery bag litter in the state just one year after it was fully implemented. Did you just finish trick or treating? Thats right, nothing like getting high on your own supply. And even if you use the word fee, sometimes people dont like that as well. There are many factors to consider when looking at the environmental impact of plastic bags, and also paper bags may not be as environmentally friendly as people think. Not So Fast | WIRED Plastic Bottles Plastic Bags All donations matched! In fact, it may not even be the most effective option. And do you think that it is more broadly true that cracking down on one specific plastic product can have rebound effects with other plastic products, or is this maybe a more isolated case that you found? Heres Dr. Taylor discussing some of her research on that front. Banning Plastic Bags Is Great for the World, Right? Not So Fast - Pinterest Our world faces increasingly severe hurricanes, wildfires, floods, heat waves, and more, but grocery bags have somehow become one of the hottest environmental topics. Why We Shouldn't Ban Plastic Bags 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. [booo] Yeah, that was even rough for my standards. Even studies conducted with the purest of intentions depend on any number of assumptions. Whos building these things, Triscuit? Plastic bags are made from non-renewable sources and on this account, highly contribute to climate change. Do single-use plastic bans work? - BBC Future The Massachusetts proposal may not become law this year, but it's the latest sign that the plastic bag industry is losing this war. But it turns out that charging people to use bags is not the same as paying them to bring reusable bags. The Bad Astronomer Takes You on a Tour of the Cosmos. Its like trying to send paper through a really old copier. Whos building these things, Triscuit? And cotton, unlike paper, is not currently recycled in most places. Not So Fast. Wait, sorry, wrong kind of cracker. ETHAN: Obviously, bags are the only policy option like we talked about theres fees theres more voluntary approaches You know, with straws, something that intrigued me was default choice modification. It honestly sounds like a superhero, doesnt it? So I wont rehash it all today, but if you listen to our episodes on fracking or the Permian Basin or the Haynesville Shale, youll learn a little bit about the villain origin story of plastic bags, and some of the many issues to which they contribute. In fact, the only place they havent been is Dave and Busters. And then if when those you know are no longer possible, can we recycle them? Was Implementation the Right Theme for COP27? And in particular, stores start offering thicker plastic bags and sticker paper bags for free. As the Australian study noted, a cotton bag has major environmental impacts of its own. Its like the Snapchat of ocean trash its no YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or Twitter, but its still relevant. Choking the oceans with Plastics. Politicians "looking for something to do" like banning plastic bags routinely do more harm than good. A tweak could let quantum possibilities increase as space expands. The 13 Best Electric Bikes for Every Kind of Ride, The Best Barefoot Shoes for Walking or Running. 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. Amid fracking boom, Pennsylvania faces toxic wastewater reckoning. Again, Im not referring to carbon emissions, Im talking nitrous oxide, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, smog, Sagittariuses, really bad stuff. 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. And I think thats the topic I dont know enough about. But in terms of plastic, you are correct. And now theyre using a thicker product with more packaging. Not good places to be adding more polluting facilities. Some are funded by plastic industry groups, like the ironically named American Progressive Bag Alliance. Even if bags arent the worst offender though, theyre a very hot topic and in my opinion, a really really interesting and misunderstood one, so Im very excited to talk about it today. Ironic.plastic is still better than cloth, but it just has to be more than single-use. 1. 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. 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 . In the last couple weeks, I believe around five of our team members got sick, so weve been struggling a little bit! People still need bags to bring home their groceries. How many plastic bags are replaced by one cotton tote bag? You know, thats a bit of sort of the speculation of why these behavioral changes occurred. The U.S. is the number two producer of polyethylene in the world behind China, and in the U.S., 80 percent of our primary petrochemical supply is in Texas and Louisiana. So is there anything you would suggest to policymakers as they tried to address the issue? A pound of cotton requires more than 5,000 gallons of water on average, a thirst far greater than that of any vegetable and even most meats.