TO: the New York City Council

Kaur 2

Problem Memorandum

TO: The New York City Council

FROM: Nabjot Kaur

SUBJECT: Complete Ban of Plastic Bags

DATE: September 8, 2016

Plastic bags are used almost every day, and it is a part of our lives as a social norm. They are convenient, light weight, and easy. We do not realize that these bags actually pollute our environment vastly. They are created from non-renewable resources such as polypropylene, which is a natural gas.[i] Using non-renewable resources, it is a huge contributor to greenhouse gases, which is a major cause of climate change. Like many plastic items today, plastic bags do not break down or disappear. These bags will just eventually break down into smnkaller pieces, and it is easily digestible for marine life while it releases more harmful substances.[ii] These bags are too costly to keep making, and there needs to be a full ban because people can still purchase plastic bags for a nickel tax very easily.

The main issue is that we live in a society of receive and toss away. We want so many things and we do not care where it ends up when we do not need it anymore. Plastic is basically a daily norm in our lives, and we do not even notice it. We go to a store and we want to buy something, but we need something to carry those items. Here comes, the easy portable single use plastic bag. Once we are home with our items, we toss away the plastic bag like it never existed. Approximately, there are 100 billion plastic bags thrown away in the U.S. every year, which is equal to dumping around 12 million barrels of oil into the environment.[iii] Worldwide, we use around 1 trillion plastic bags every year which is 2 bags per minute. Wall Street Journal reports that the average time one uses a plastic bag is 12 minutes[iv], and the irony is those 12 minutes will stay on the Earth forever. Thus, the bags end up in landfills and oceans which kills marine life. Since the bags resemble jellyfish, many animals such as sea turtles, whales, seals, birds, etc. eat these bags.[v] This causes the animals to have their digestive track to be blocked leading to infections and starvation, or suffocated to death.[vi] Since plastic bags do not biodegrade as stated earlier, these animals are not the only ones that are affected by this. The bags will break into smaller and smaller particles until they are small enough to enter the food chain, which out numbers the plankton population in the ocean.[vii] The tiny participles of plastic toxins go through the food chain and back to us for example a human eating fish. A reporter from the Los Angeles Times did an investigation of Inuit women, who eat more marine life than the usual person. The investigation showed that they have extraordinary levels of the chemical toxin PCB, which is from plastics, in their breast milk. This does not conclude that Non-Inuit people are safe because studies show that children over the age of six presently test positive for BPA, which is not supposed to be found in humans at all.[viii]

Some people who want to prevent this believe that they can recycle their bags. However, there is not a clear market for recycled plastic bags. There is an issue with sorting them, high costs, and cleanliness. The Earth Resource Foundation reports that only 3% plastic bags produced are actually recycled.[ix] An example of the constant issue of disposed plastic bags is the Pacific Garbage Patch. The Ocean Conservancy states that plastic bags are the most common pieces of garbage found on beaches. Since there are converging ocean currents, there is an island of plastic waste which is the Pacific Garbage Patch.[x] It is now two times larger than Texas in the middle of the ocean. Our usage of plastic bags has created an island full of plastic waste, and it keeps increasing! National Geographic states that 70% plastic in the ocean sinks to the bottom, and there must be a huge amount of plastic in the ocean itself.[xi] If we compare this number to the usage and disposal of plastic bags as stated earlier, it is quite terrifying to consider the wellbeing for Earth in the future.

As stated earlier, plastic bags are created from non-renewable resources of petroleum such as polypropylene. Oil companies continue drilling for this, and they wreak a tremendous amount of havoc on the environment. The damage includes: hazardous toxins being, deforestation to clear areas for drilling, oil spills killing wildlife and polluting fresh water, and even organ damage and diseases for people who live nearby.[xii] The oil companies and plastic industry receive so much profit on the need for plastic bags that they do not care about the problems they cause. The plastic industries are making claims that plastic is beneficial for the environment, they sponsor advertisements to persuade people to vote against bag bans in local elections, and support studies to prevent the usage of reusable tote bags.[xiii] The plastic industry funded a study at the University of Arizona that there is 12 percent E. coli in reusable canvas bags, but the author of the study reported that it is not enough bacteria to make an average healthy person sick. The author also stated that more than 99.9 percent of that bacteria can be destroyed by machine or hand washing.[xiv] The current tax on the plastic bags will not make a difference because people will pay more in order to prevent bacteria like this example showed. How can we prevent people believing these bogus claims? The City Council can distribute reusable tote bags throughout the five boroughs at many city agencies, events, organizations, schools, etc., and they can explain how easy it is to wash them.

There are some countries that have banned plastic bags successfully. For example, China banned plastic bags four years ago, and it reduced 40 billion plastic bags being put out into the world.[xv] If New York City starts with a full ban like China, it can reduce millions maybe billion bags in the landfill and oceans every year. It can help save our decreasing wildlife, reduce one of the big contributors to climate change, decrease humans having toxins in their bodies, encourage reusable tote bags usage as a norm in society, and give possible inspiration for the ban to become a national law. Right now, this current bill will not make much of an impact, and as previously stated it gives an option for people to still purchase plastic bags. It might make some people use reusable bag, but the movement is not happening any faster right now to use it. The production of plastic bags is faster instead and we must stop that speed soon. Thank you for taking your time to read this, and I will enjoy to offer assistance to arrive to a full solution to this problem.

[i] "10 Reasons Why Plastic Bags Should Be Banned."Greentumble Atom. N.p., 26 Oct. 2016. Web. 06 Sept. 2016. <http://greentumble.com/10-reasons-why-plastic-bags-should-be-banned/>.

[ii] Ibid

[iii] Gamerman, Ellen. "An Inconvenient Bag." Wall Street Journal, 26 Sept. 2008. Web. 6 Oct. 2016. <http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB122238422541876879>.

[iv] Ibid

[v] Animals Australia. "Say 'NO' to Plastic Bags!" Animals Australia, n.d. Web. 06 Sept. 2016. <http://www.animalsaustralia.org/features/say_no_to_plastic_bags.php>.

[vi] "10 Reasons Why Plastic Bags Should Be Banned." Greentumble Atom. N.p., 26 Oct. 2016. Web. 06 Sept. 2016. <http://greentumble.com/10-reasons-why-plastic-bags-should-be-banned/>.

[vii] The World Counts. "Plastic Bag Pollution Facts."The World Counts. The World Counts, 15 July 2014. Web. 06 Sept. 2016. <http://www.theworldcounts.com/stories/Plastic-Bag-Pollution-Facts>.

[viii] Chamberlain, Gary L. "Polluting the Future."America Magazine. America Magazine, 30 Jan. 2013. Web. 06 Sept. 2016. <http://americamagazine.org/issue/5159/article/polluting-future>.

[ix] "Campaign against the Plastic Plague Background Info." Earth Resource Fund, n.d. Web. 06 Sept. 2016. <http://www.earthresource.org/campaigns/capp/capp-background-info.html>.

[x] "Trash Free Seas: Every Piece, Every Person." n.d. Ocean Conservancy, 2015. Web. 6 Sept. 2016. <http://www.oceanconservancy.org/our-work/marine-debris/2015-data-release/2015-data-release-pdf.pdf>.

[xi] Ibid

[xii] "Effects of Oil Drilling." Rainforest Foundation US, n.d. Web. 06 Sept. 2016. <http://www.rainforestfoundation.org/effects-oil-drilling-0/>.

[xiii] Wyckoff, Whitney Blair. "Bacteria May Grow In Reusable Grocery Bags, But Don't Fret."NPR. NPR, 25 June 2010. Web. 08 Sept. 2016. <http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2010/06/25/128105740/plastics-industry-funded-study-finds-bacteria-in-reusable-grocery-bags>.

[xiv] Ibid

[xv] Yang, Yiping. "Do Plastic Bag Bans Help the Environment?" Latitude News, n.d. Web. 06 Sept. 2016. <http://www.latitudenews.com/story/plastic-bag-ban-environment-china-us-la-supermarke/>.