subject: Reasons Why It Might Be More Favorable To Keep Using Plastic Produce Bags [print this page] Plastic bags are presently banned from supermarkets as well as other establishments in several states in the U.S. Parts of the country have been cluttered by these bags and some claim that it's about time to put an end to their utilization. But, some skeptics ask whether or not the prevalent trend in plastic ban is actually the solution.
Todd Myers, environmental director at the Washington Policy Center, is just one of those doubters. In a Wall Street Journal report, he said that there's little to no evidence of plastic bags being the primary source of contamination and death of marine life. This is a crucial argument to take into consideration because some vendors of produce bags have plastic variations. Myers said the buzz on banning the plastic bag could be rather misplaced.
Cigarettes litter the ocean the most.
D.C.-based Ocean Conservancy conducted an investigation on the types of debris one might normally find in the world's ocean. At the peak of their yearly International Coastal Cleanup in 2011, individuals gathered close to 970,000 plastic bags along the world's coastlines. The numbers are considerable, yet it isn't as huge as cigarettes and cigarette filters that amounted to over 1.9 million.
Plastic bags don't cost more.
Plastic bags definitely aren't free; yet they're not actually pricey. Myers said that, before the ban, supermarkets used plastic bags since they're more affordable; and their overall flexibility permits them to contain a lot more items. A benefit of these bags is that you can reuse them plenty of times in a variety of situations-- a habit among the majority of individuals today.
There's little benefit in the restriction.
As a closing statement, Myers said that there's little for governments to achieve from banning the use of plastic bags. With the restriction, he predicted that customers could save at least $ 300,000 in carbon emissions and water for the price of $ 10 million to switch to non-plastics. This definitely indicates that the price of the benefit overshadows the advantages themselves. The problem, Myers stated, is more on the plastic's reputation rather than its effect.
Look at the write-up at WSJ.com and say what you think about the issue on plastic bags. If you retail seafood, some vendors of packaging solutions have mesh bags, sturdy, leak-proof boxes as well as paper bags for seafood packaging which are all eco-friendly.
