Plastic bags are used for containing, carrying, and transporting goods from stores to the destination. Statistically, the world uses 5 trillion plastic bags a year. It is undeniable that plastic bags are light, never mind getting wet, and convenient for people to carry. However, plastic bags in fact are very harmful to the environment. Specifically, producing the plastic bags uses the energy of fossil fuels and this process creates air pollution. Then people usually throw away the plastic bags after using them. In 2015 about 730,000 tons of plastic bags, sacks and wraps were generated in the United States, but more than 87% of those items are never recycled, winding up in landfills and the ocean. Moreover, plastic bags won’t fall apart or disappear like paper bags because they are not biodegradable. Instead, plastic bags break down into tiny toxic particles that contaminate the soil and water. The worst part is that plastic bags get into the food chain and animals mistakenly eat them, which endangers their lives. The website of OceanCare reports that “Around 9 million tons of plastic waste get into the ocean every year. Millions of marine animals die because they mistake the plastics for food or get entangled in it.” In 2002, Ireland began charging people 15 cents for a plastic bag. San Francisco began its ban in 2007. Similar laws will take effect in July 2010 in Los Angeles, where shoppers will be charged 25 cents for a paper or biodegradable bag. In January of 2010, Washington D.C. lawmakers announced that the residents need to pay a 5-cent tax for the plastic bags. People from different places and cities have different opinions about the 5-cent plastic bag policy. From my own perspective, the 5-cent plastic bags policy alone is not the best solution. Let’s discuss.
The advantage of the 5-cent plastic bag policy is to awaken their awareness of stopping using plastic bags to protect the Earth. One of the goals of paying 5-cent for a plastic bag is to discourage consumers from using the single-use throw-away plastic bag. Some people are trying to avoid unnecessary expenses, even if the expense is a small amount of money. The 5-cent fee makes consumers think twice before they say yes to the cashiers about buying the plastic bags. This suggests that the consumers, in turn, might change their behaviors by bringing reusable bags to carry their purchased items. Adriana Jakovcevic, a psychologist at Buenos Aires University, conducts a new study on plastic-bag charges saying “Charging a relatively small amount of bags produces changes in behaviors of carrying their own bags.” Another goal is to reduce litter, pollution, and waste, which would be harmful to human and marine animals. Plastic bags are not biodegradable and take a long time to break down; in fact, plastic bags would take up to an estimated 1,000 years to decompose. For hungry sea turtles, it's nearly impossible to distinguish between jellyfish and floating plastic shopping bags.The 5-cent policy leads people to take the problem of plastic pollution seriously and wakes up their environmental consciousness. When people start to use fewer plastic bags, litter in public spaces, parks, or streets would become fewer. Also, fewer plastic bags mean less plastic waste entering the oceans, which would reduce the plastic pollution and protect marine life from ingestion and entanglement. According to the Environment America Research & Policy Center, government agencies have found that plastic bag bans successfully reduce plastic bag use and associated litter and pollution by at least one-third. The City of Chicago in early 2017 implemented a seven-cent tax on plastic checkout bags. The government found that Chicago’s bag tax reduced plastic bag usage from 82% of consumers to just 54%.
Although the plastic bag ban seems a practical solution for the plastic pollution, in reality the practice of this policy is not that effective because it faces some dilemmas. First, The Poor-The Rich Dilemma. From the poor viewpoint, it is already difficult for them to afford groceries, so charging 5-cent money for plastic bags is indeed unfair to them. Also, it is understandable that people should try their best to protect the Earth and the living environment. But first the poor need to protect their own family and money by not spending the extra unnecessary money. Moreover, the poor are already poor. Do they have the ability to pay for 5-cent? On the other hand, the rich people of course could afford the 5-cents plastic bags so they won’t refuse this policy. They have no complaints because they don’t care about spending the 5 cents. They are millions with enormous money and they can purchase many 5-cent plastic bags. This in turn encourages the making of the plastic bags. Now what? The poor cannot afford a 5-cent plastic bag; but the rich can afford a lot of 5-cent plastic bags. How to balance these 2 groups? CONTRADICT. Second, The Tax-Revenue Dilemma. Lawmakers take money of 5-cent from people’s income when they use plastic bags. The final target is to have zero plastic bags usage. However, the 5-cent money from the plastic bags becomes the government's revenue. The more usage of plastic bags, the more money revenue the government would get. For the government, they definitely want more revenue. The government is expecting the money from people to use for other things, like education, public equipment construction, road building, technology, army..etc. Now what? The government wants to have income from the 5-cent plastic bags, meaning people are using a lot of plastic bags. BUT the government also hopes to have zero revenue from the 5-cnet plastic bags, meaning no people use plastic bags. CONTRADICT. Third, The Making-non Making Dilemma. Plastic bags are born to be bad. Plastic bags start out as fossil fuels and the process of making the plastic bags creates air pollution. So why not stop it from the beginning? Instead of having the 5-cent plastic bag policy, why not tell everybody to legally stop using plastic bags because of the pollution? CONTRADICT. When looking at the overall view of this 5-cent policy, we can conclude that the idea is good but the realization is not.
Obviously, the 5-cent plastic bag policy alone is not workable. Government, business owners, and schools programs should work together to reduce plastic bag usage. Government could significantly level up the fees or taxes for the plastic bag, like $1 a plastic bag. This would stop consumers from purchasing plastic bags. According to a recent study by the United Kingdom government, a charge on plastic bags was first introduced in 2014 for 5p a bag. When the price increases up to 10p a bag, the 2022 report reveals a 97% reduction in plastic bags sold, compared to the 2014. Business owners could offer financial incentives to their customers. Every time the customers bring their own reusable bags to do the shopping, they would receive one stamp on the loyalty card. Once ten stamps are collected, they would have a 20% discount for their shopping. This would encourage customers to always have reusable bags in their cars. Howard Chai, a blogger as well as a customer, claims that “ By rewarding customers for not using plastic bags, rather than punishing for using them, the exchange of money and plastic bags is re-framed as a desirable goal for both the business and customer, and eventually customers will prefer getting that discount over the benefits of getting a plastic bag.” School Program should develop a curriculum about environmental education to teach young kids the seriousness of plastic pollution. Through lessons, young kids’ attitudes and behaviors toward the plastic bag usage would be shaped in a healthy way. At the same time, schools could organize the workshops on recycling and talk about the benefits of using the reusable bags. In 2019, students from North Tahoe High School, Truckee High School, Incline High School, and South Tahoe High School learned about the plastic bags and plastic water bottle problem impacting Lake Tahoe; those students formed a plastics clean-up committee to discuss how they could reduce the plastic waste locally.
Plastic bags do bring convenience for humans. But at the same time, they are really a big problem, very destructive to the living environment. Plastic bags start out as fossil fuels and end up as deadly waste in landfills and the ocean. Plastic bags are not biodegradable. They break down into tiny toxic particles that contaminate the soil and water. Many animals even mistakenly eat them, getting sick or dying. Lawmakers develop the 5-cent plastic bag ban to discourage consumers from using the plastic bags, hoping to reduce the plastic pollution and waste. This ban seems effective, but in fact this policy encounters The Poor-The Rich Dilemma, The Tax-Revenue Dilemma, and The Making-non Making Dilemma. From my perspective, the 5-cent plastic bag policy alone is not workable. Government, business owners, and schools should make efforts to reduce plastic bag usage. The bottom line is that everyone, no matter old man or young kids, government or citizens, women or men, should take the responsibility to protect our living environment or Earth. Otherwise humans would be harmed as a result. Imagine: Plastic waste enters into the oceans. Fish then eat thousands of tons of plastic a year. Later humans catch fish and eat those fish. This also means microplastics are consumed by people through food. What a terrifying thing!
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