Addressing the Root of the Plastic Waste Problem
L.A county has a large plastic waste problem, and the county itself creates about 28 million tons of solid waste each year. Less than 10% of all single-use plastics are recycled which means most non-degradable plastics will take up space in landfills for millions of years and damage L.A’s oceans and environment. Not only do taxpayers have to pay lots of money towards litter prevention and pollution, but plastic waste also contributes to climate change, as plastic production accounts for 20% of fossil fuel consumption. California lawmakers are trying to create legislation on plastic that would eventually phase out non-recyclable single use packaging by 2030(McGreevy). I aim to figure out how to decrease the amount of plastic waste and how to decrease the impact it has on the environment to lessen climate change.
Californians have already been barred from getting plastic straws in many restaurants until they are requested and many grocery stores are not providing single-use plastic bags. State lawmakers have been trying to take action for years in order to help L.A’s growing pollution problem and to prevent climate change. In 2019, legislation has been passed that requires plastic and single-use materials to be reusable, fully recyclable, or compostable by 2030(McGreevy). The L.A council shares the objective of reducing the amount of plastic going into landfills.
L.A county’s plastic waste problem has steadily increased over the years and has led to various types of pollution in the area. More specifically, I plan to hone in on the banning of single-use plastic bags in L.A in order to lessen its impacts on the environment. The article “Reducing Single-Use plastic shopping bags in the USA’’, addresses how local governments have been handling this issue. Over 100 billion single-use plastic bags have been used in a year in the U.S alone. You may be thinking, how bad can single use plastic bags be for the environment? A large problem with using plastic bags is that they often end up in landfills due to their low recyclability rate. “According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA, 2016), the 2014 EOL recovery rate for all (HDPE and LDPE combined) plastic bags, sacks, and wraps combined was 12.3%, which represents a decrease of 1.2% from 2013 (US EPA, 2015)”(Wagner). In response, plastic bags often remain a source of land-based litter and end up in stormwater management systems or become a part of marine debris. Single-use plastic bags are actually made from fossil fuels. Plastic shopping bags often become litter through escape during collection,transportation, recycling, or disposal. Its thin material and balloon-like features allow them to be dispersed by the wind and travel large distances, which primarily causes them to become land-litter and marine debris. When plastic litter enters surface waters or the marine environment, its effects become far more deadly. Plastic bags are the most common component of marine litter. “ The input of plastic into the marine environment far exceeds its removal because of plastic’s buoyancy and longevity as plastic can potentially last hundreds to thousands of years (Cózar et al., 2014)”(Wagner). Although cleaning up this marine litter may seem easy, it’s not feasible at the moment, and it would be more efficient to focus on preventing this problem rather than letting it happen(Wagner).
On a more global scale, plastic waste and pollution takes a large toll on the environment and contributes to the rising problem of climate change. Plastic pollution has a large negative impact on our oceans and wildlife heath. The global primary production of plastic amounts to 270 million tonnes. Back in 1950, the world produced only 2 million tonnes per year but with the increased use of plastics, annual production has increased nearly 200-fold that reaches upto 381 million tonnes in 2015. “The world had produced 7.8 billion tonnes of plastic — more than one tonne of plastic for every person alive today.” However, it is the management of plastic waste that actually determines the risk of plastic entering the ocean and harming the environment. Global plastic waste disposal methods have changed over time, as prior to 1980, recycling or incinerating plastic was non-existent, leaving all of the plastic to be discarded(Ritchie). This started the era of plastic waste problems that remains today. The future dealing with this plastic waste problem is looking grim, as the amount of waste that pollutes the environment and the ocean harms the earth day by day. “What’s more striking is that even if we stopped ocean plastic waste by 2020, macroplastics would persist in our surface waters for many more decades. This is because we have a large legacy of plastics buried and awash on our shorelines which would continue to resurface and be transported to offshore regions; and existing plastics can persist in the ocean environment for many decades”(Ritchie). It is important to recognize that simply stopping plastic waste would not solve the problem. Therefore, it is important to analyze how to manage the production of plastic and the waste management itself to break down this problem.
Single-use plastic bags in general are very bad for the environment but more specifically, single-use plastic bags have become a significant problem in Los Angeles. Plastic bags harm marine and human life, at least 690 species are impacted by marine debris. Fish often ingest plastic debris which causes chemical additives in plastic and chemicals to accumulate on the surface of the plastic. You may be wondering why we can’t just recycle or reuse these plastic bags. The answer is simple, recycling single use plastic bags are costly and often ineffective. Recycling plastic bags brings us back economically, as it costs $4,000 to recycle one ton of plastic. Also, shopping bags often jam machinery and increase costs. Plastic bags also waste taxpayer dollars. “California state and local government spends roughly $428 million annually to protect the Pacific Ocean and state waterways from litter. Between 8 and 25 percent of that cost is attributable to plastic bag waste”(Why). In the Los Angeles area alone, 10 metric tons of plastic fragments are carried into the Pacific Ocean every day. “The City of Los Angeles found that plastic bags made up 25% of litter in storm drains”(Why).
Plans to phase out single-use plastic bags have been attempted. Local governments use a variety of measures to reduce single-use shopping bags and give a baseline as to what regulations are put into place. For example, many states, California included, use a fee-based ordinance that charges retailers money if they use plastic bags, which encourages people to bring their own reusable bags(Wagner). Although this is a step in the right direction, I don’t believe that the regulations are enough to make a change. In the article titled “Grocery bags and takeout containers aren’t enough. It’s time to phase out all single-use plastic”, it addresses how more regulations are needed in order to reduce the effects that plastic bags have on the environment. “Denying free plastic bags at checkout or providing plastic straws only on request sends consumers an important message that there’s a bigger cost to these everyday items than they may have considered”(Grocery). The real solution is to work towards phasing out all single-use plastics. Although I believe that the regulations in place are a step in the right direction, I agree with this article and think it’s important to phase out all single-use plastics instead of just placing fees on the bags themselves.
Although phasing out all single-use plastic bags would help the environment, it comes with challenges from both the business and economic aspect. One problem with phasing out plastic bags is that grocery stores would have to resort to relying on customers bringing or buying reusable bags. This could cause more problems, as customers could easily forget having to bring their own bags or prefer using the one time plastic bags instead. An easy solution to this problem would be selling cheap reusable bags at every grocery store so that customers can easily purchase reusable bags to keep their groceries in on the spot. From a consumer standpoint, it may be unappealing to have to pay for reusable bags but if they are made affordable and in bulk, it will be easier to make them cheap. “Taylor and Villas-Boas (2016) found that with a plastic only bag ban, some consumption shifts to reusable and paper bags. They found a significant increase in paper bags from about 5% prior to a ban to 46.5% after the ban. However, in stores that sell inexpensive reusable bags (i.e., $0.15), consumption of paper bags increased to only 10% (Taylor and Villas-Boas, 2016)”(Wagner). If reusable bags are made inexpensive, customers will be drawn to using these bags which follows the plastic bag ban plan and lessen the harmful effects that single use plastics have on the environment. From a business owner standpoint, it may be more expensive to sell these reusable bags or it may make customers unhappy if all plastic bags are removed due to the inconvenience. Consumers often like keeping plastic bags at home to reuse them or use them for other purposes.Businesses want to keep their customers happy and may find it hard to follow through with something that may make their customers unhappy. It may be hard to get all grocery stores and companies to stop using plastic bags, as some grocery stores may want to continue with their old habits and continue to keep their customers happy. Although phasing out all single-use plastics may be difficult, its challenges do not outweigh eliminating the harmful effects that single-use plastics have on the environment. It is essential to work towards phasing out all single-use plastic bags in order to decrease pollution, marine and landfill debris, taxpayer dollars, and overall lessen climate change.
Other countries around the world handle the single-use plastic waste problem differently. In 2016, France banned free distribution of thin single-use plastic bags that are often given out at grocery stores. The bans attempt to reduce 5 million plastic grocery bags as well as 12 billion produce bags. Some countries like Canada place restrictions on the thickness of the bag. For example, Montreal placed a ban of single-use plastic bags that are thicker than 50 microns since January of 2018. Rwanda banned plastic bags in 2008 and were disposed of by incineration. Using plastic bags is considered illegal and results in fines or jail time. Although this seems harsh, it has had positive impacts on the environment such as reduced flooding and reduced erosion. The government of Luxembourg has taken a unique approach and replaced the country’s single-use plastic bags eco-sac reusable bags known as Oko-Tut. With 85 retailers using this new sacs, there was an 85 percent drop in plastic consumption within 9 years of using Oko-Tut’s(Rosemont). Although these countries take a different approach towards solving the problems of plastic waste, these countries are only coming up with surface level solutions. It is important to focus on stopping the production of plastic waste, but it is just as important to focus on other aspects of the problem, such as incentivising citizens, promoting sustainable businesses, and focusing on waste management. The European Union has done this with their plan to solve the growing plastic waste problem. The European Union adopted the first-ever European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy. This plan paves a way to eliminate plastic pollution and change the way plastics are used and made. This plan also aims to create jobs, invest in innovation, and to increase the benefits of recycling(European Strategy). Throughout looking at the various approaches different countries have, it appears that many other countries simply focus on stopping plastic bag production. Although that aspect is important, it is more essential to attack each aspect of plastic waste as a whole in order to fully solve the harm that plastic waste has on the environment.
The European Union’s approach of creating a committee to not only focus on reducing plastic waste but to also create a better job economy and increase the benefits of recycling is a great way to approach the issue of plastic bags. “In Europe, citizens, government and industry support more sustainable and safer consumption and production patterns for plastics. This provides a fertile ground for social innovation and entrepreneurship, creating a wealth of opportunities for all Europeans”(European Strategy). This committee also focuses on making the citizens more aware of the need to avoid waste and consumers are incentivised in order to promote contribution to this problem. Businesses and innovative products are also being created in order to offer more sustainable consumption patterns. Innovative solutions are being developed to prevent microplastics from reaching the seas and the specifics of plastics’ origin and travel route are being analyzed in order to prevent build up in the ocean(European Strategy). “The EU is taking a leading role in a global dynamic, with countries engaging and cooperating to halt the flow of plastics into the oceans and taking remedial action against plastics waste already accumulated. Best practices are disseminated widely, scientific knowledge improves, citizens mobilise, and innovators and scientists develop solutions that can be applied worldwide”(European Strategy). This approach gives insight into how the problem should be solved collectively and how it should be taken seriously. It not only focuses on the government and the committee to work towards a solution, as it pushes citizens to work towards solving the problems that plastic waste encounters. This approach also aims to find more solutions than simply reducing the harmful effects that single-use plastic bags have on the environment. The U.S could benefit from an approach similar to the European Union’s because the EU’s committee attacks every side of the plastic waste problem, as opposed to just plastic itself. It addresses the roles of the government, consumers, citizens, businesses, and more in order to grasp the problem from the root as opposed to addressing the problem from the surface.
https://www.cleanwateraction.org/sites/default/files/CA_Fact%20Sheet_final.pdf
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-plastic-plan-20180220-story.html
https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-plastic-product-phaseout-20190221-story.html
