Banning plastic bags is not the answer to our litter problem

Published 8:48 am Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Plastic bags.
They are used for everything, for your groceries, fast food purchases in many instances, items purchased at the local Wal-Mart, Walgreens and CVS. We re-use them to carry our lunch in as well as many other things.
But they also can be found discarded in creeks and along riverbanks and roadways, where they have been discarded by consumers.
Earlier this month the Tenn. Department of Transportation teamed up with many local grocers and cleanup partners to promote litter prevention by distributing free reusable bags in a campaign spreading litter awareness.
Although roadside trash is down 53 percent in Tennessee, litter is still a big problem for the state. According to the Tennessee DOT there are still an estimated 100 million pieces of trash on Tennessee roadways. TDOT reports that it spends $15 million annually cleaning up litter, of which 30 percent is deliberate, meaning trash is tossed right out of vehicle windows.
Memphis and Nashville — the state’s most populous cities that also lean more liberal — have recently considered levying taxes against single-use plastic bags. The plastic bags industry has opposed such taxes, but state lawmakers have been more willing to pre-empt the local governments.
Tennessee is one of at least five states where lawmakers are considering pre-empting local governments from taxing or banning plastic bags that are used to carry everything from groceries to clothing and cosmetics, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures’ website. Eleven other states, including Texas, Arizona and Florida, already have similar laws in place, the NCSL said.
Tennessee could become the latest state to ban local municipalities from regulating certain plastic bags and utensils.
The state currently has no plastic bag ban in place.
Some would like to see the plastic grocery bags banned. There is no question that plastic bag bans are a trendy environmental cause. The rationale behind the ban is that if plastic bags were eliminated, they would not wind up alongside roadways, or in rivers or creeks, or even in the ocean, where they potentially harm marine animals and other wildlife.
Plastic pollution is a legitimate issue. But the problem is not the bags, nor the stores that provide single-use bags; it is that some people litter or don’t dispose of them properly. Eliminating single-use plastic bags and charging for other bags will achieve little change in global pollution while imposing significant costs.
Yes, there are a lot of plastic bags that litter our community, but there is other litter as well, such as fast food wrappers, cups, straws, discarded oil bottles and other auto accessories, and the most plentiful type of pollution is cigarette butts.
Those who would like to ban plastic bags don’t take into account that consumers reuse the bags for countless other purposes, such as lining wastebaskets, packing lunches, storing items or picking up after pets. Some other bag would replace them.
It is true that plastic bags are difficult to recycle in the traditional sense. They clog the machinery at recycling centers and often wind up in the garbage. Emerging industries, however, are recycling those old bags into new plastic bags and into patio furniture, water pipes, plastic decking and other products. Some plastic products also are compostable under the right conditions.
Similarly, the six-pack rings invented in the 1960s to hold beverages are evolving into compostable, edible, recyclable and other environmentally friendly packaging. Consumer demand and market opportunities drove the research that led to those changes.
The nation’s largest chain of supermarkets, Kroger’s, now plans to phase out plastic bags by 2025.
The lesson is that the consumer market will work to address environmental issues, if we let it.
“The good news is the research showed that nine out of 10 Tennesseans are more likely to properly dispose of their trash after learning about the statewide litter problem,” Commissioner Clay Bright added. “We believe this anti-litter campaign can make a difference and potentially save highway maintenance funds for other needed road projects.”
Perhaps, we also need to educate consumers that there is a right way and wrong way to discard of the plastic bags. Not tossing them out vehicle windows is one way. That said, we need a lot of anti-litter education in our community.

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