Ancillary 8

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 specficially, I am focusing on the banning of single-use plastic bags in L.A in order to lessen its impacts on the environment. One article I chose to use for my research is titled “Reducing Single-Use plastic shopping bags in the USA”. This article helps contribute to the background information on the damage that single-use shopping bags have on the environment. It also sheds light on how local governments have been handling this issue. It addresses how over 100 billion single-use plastic bags have been used in a year. This is a problem because plastic bags often end up in landfills due to their low recyclability rate. 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. This article also highlights how local governments use a variety of measures to reduce single-use shopping bags and gives a baseline as to what regulations are put into place. For example, it mentions how many states, California included, use a fee-based ordinance that chargers retailers money if they use plastic bags, which encourages people to bring their own reusable bags. My second article, “Why Ban Single-Use Plastic Bags in California” focuses more specifically on California’s plastic bag problem and the problems that they cause. This article is on a website that focuses on taking action towards the growing water pollution issue. This article specifically mentions the burdens plastic bags have, such as how it wastes taxpayer dollars, how its recycling is costly and ineffective, how it harms both marine and human life, and how California’s waterways are filling up with plastic. It addresses how the bag bans work, which will help guide my claim of how it is important to ban single-use plastic bags in order to decrease the amount of plastic waste and lessen the effects of climate change. My third source on L.A times is an article titled “Grocery bags and takeout containers aren’t enough. It’s time to phase out all single-use plastic”. This article focuses on how California’s approach towards single-use plastic grocery bags is not as effective. “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). This article argues that it is going to take more than the regulations California has in place in order to help make a change. 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. The other articles do address the issue’s and back up my debate on how bad single-use plastics are on the environment, this article specifically backs up my argument that it is essential to work towards not only regulating but banning the use of single-use plastic bags.