# data[].attributes.body
C- N/A
R- agrees with my claim
A- Troy Mayne, ".org" shows that it was made by an organization
A- N/A
P- to persuade

# data[].attributes.body
C- Nov. 22, 2017
R- agrees with my claim
A- Elvira Jiménez, ".org" shows it was made by an organization

A- N/A
P- N/A

# data[].attributes.body
C- March 12, 2017
R- neutral (just tells facts)
A- Candela Vázquez,
A- 1 error (no comma before "and")
P- to inform

# data[].attributes.body
C- April 22, 2019
R- agrees with my claim
A- N/A
A- N/A
P-to inform

# data[].attributes.body
C- N/A (found in paddle search)
R- N/A (found in paddle search)
A- N/A (found in paddle search)
A- N/A (found in paddle search)
P- N/A (found in paddle search)

# data[].attributes.body
C- N/A
R- disagrees with my claim
A-  N/A (cites its sources)
A- 1 error (no comma before "and")
P- to persuade

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Plastic bags are the most environmentally friendly option at the checkout. They're 100% recyclable and highly reused. Studies show that alternatives which seem "greener" actually place a greater burden on the environment because they require more natural resources to produce and transport, they emit more carbon throughout their lifecycles and they need more energy to recycle - if they're recyclable at all. On top of that, studies show bag bans and taxes haven't meaningfully reduced overall litter or waste anywhere they've been tried. ¹

ENERGY SAVINGS: Plastic bags require 70% less energy to manufacture and consume 96% less water than what's used to make paper bags.

DISPOSAL ADVANTAGES: Once disposed, reusable bags take up to 9.3% more space than plastic bags in landfills.

REUSABLE COTTON BAGS AREN'T REUSED ENOUGH: Standard reusable cotton grocery bags must be reused at least 131 times "to ensure that they have lower global warming potential than" a plastic bag used only once.² In fact, one study found that organic cotton bags need to be reused 20,000 times to have the same environment performance of a plastic bag reused once.³

NO OIL INVOLVED: American-made plastic bags are produced from byproducts of natural gas, not oil.⁴

The results are in: Bag bans and taxes don't help to reduce waste, litter, or marine debris.
Ban and tax ordinances have never been successful at meaningfully reducing litter, waste or marine debris. Not anywhere. What they have been shown to do is heap unfair costs on low and fixed-income families and add more red tape to local businesses. The environment doesn't benefit, and neither do people.

LANDFILL WASTE INCREASES: According to the EPA, "plastic bags and sacks" account for 0.3% of municipal solid waste.⁵ Plastic retail bags are a fraction of this number. Without plastic grocery bags, people purchase replacement bags - often made of thicker, heavier plastic - and then send those bags to the landfill instead.⁶
In Austin, landfill waste increased after a bag ban because shoppers used and disposed of thicker plastic reusable bags in the place of standard plastic grocery bags.⁷

LITTLE TO NO IMPACT ON OVERALL LITTER: Plastic retail bags comprise a very small portion of litter - typically less than 1% - making bans and taxes ineffective when it comes to reducing overall litter.⁸

In Washington, D.C., a bag tax hasn't improved litter or reduced bag use at all.⁹ According to a Washington Post investigation, D.C. collected roughly $10 million since 2010 without making any environmental progress. And the tax revenue keeps growing every year.¹⁰

A year after California implemented a statewide ban on plastic bags in 2016, an Ocean Conservancy survey showed a negligible 0.2% decrease in plastic bag litter as a percentage of overall litter.¹¹

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES:

California's plastic bag ban led to an increase in carbon emissions due to a surge in trash bag purchases (which use more plastic than traditional retail bags) as well as an increase in paper bag usage.¹²

In Thurston County, Washington, a bag ban resulted in double the use of more resource-intensive paper bags.¹³

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Plastic Bags and the Environment - Bag the Ban

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Plastic bags are the most environmentally friendly option at the checkout. They're 100% recyclable and highly reused. Studies show that alternatives which seem "greener" actually place a greater burden on the environment because they require more natural resources to produce and transport, they emit more carbon throughout their lifecycles and they need more energy to [...]

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C- Oct. 16, 2019
R- agrees with my claim
A- Authors- Catherine Plume, Matt Seaham, and Jean - Cyril Walker ".org" means that the person people that made this site was made by an organization.
A- 2 errors (no comma before "and")
P- to persuade

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Millions of tons of plastic enter the environment every year, killing wildlife, releasing toxins, clogging drains, and marring landscapes. Bans or restrictions on single-use plastics-most commonly bags and straws-have exploded in popularity recent years as a means of addressing these problems. Over 125 nations and 240 U.S. cities and counties have banned or taxed plastic bags, several cities have banned or otherwise restricted the use of plastic straws, and several private companies, including Starbucks, have also taken steps to reduce their straw usage in response to widespread consumer pressure.

Yet, these bans remain controversial. Some businesses have pushed back against what they consider excessive regulation. Those in opposition have noted that some populations, including those with disabilities, may require the use of a plastic straw, and that taxes on plastic bags may constitute a regressive tax. Even the environmental benefits are far from certain: when plastic shopping bags are banned, use of other bags that are potentially worse for the environment -including thicker plastic bags using more plastic, or paper bags, with a larger carbon footprint - increases. Others maintain that banning single-use plastics uses valuable political capital that could instead be spent advancing more urgent and system agendas like transitioning to a low-carbon economy.

Our panelists explored the benefits and challenges of an increasingly popular, and increasingly contentious, approach to the problem of plastic pollution.

Panelists:
Lillian Power, Environmental Protection Specialist, District of Columbia Department of Energy & Environment (DOEE), Moderator Catherine Plume, Principal, BlueGreen Plume, LLC and Managing Director, (r)evolve
Matt Seaholm, Executive Director, American Progressive Bag AllianceJean-Cyril Walker, Partner, Keller and Heckman LLP

ELI members will have access to materials/a recording of this session (usually posted w/in 48 hours). If you are not an ELI member but would like to have access to archived sessions like this one, go HERE to see the many benefits of membership and how to join.

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Millions of tons of plastic enter the environment every year, killing wildlife, releasing toxins, clogging drains, and marring landscapes. Bans or restrictions on single-use plastics-most commonly bags and straws-have exploded in popularity recent years as a means of addressing these problems. Over 125 nations and 240 U.S.

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C- Jan. 28, 2020
R- agrees with my claim
A- Stephanie Vermilion, ".com" is usually used for commercial use
A- 1 error (word choice)
P- to teach/persuade

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In early January 2020, China joined the growing movement of more than 120 countries pledging to ban single-use plastics. The country of 1.4 billion citizens is the No. 1 producer of plastic waste in the world. It topped 60 million tons (54.4 million metric tons) in 2010 based on a September 2018 report titled " Plastic Pollution."

But China announced it plans to outlaw the production and sale of non-degradable bags by the end of 2020 in major cities (and everywhere by 2022), as well as single-use straws by late 2020. Markets selling produce will have until 2025 to follow suit.

The push to ban plastic took center stage in 2018 with massive promotions like the award-winning # StopSucking campaign, which featured stars like NFL quarterback Tom Brady and his wife Gisele Bündchen and Hollywood actor Adrian Grenier pledging to give up single-use plastic straws. Now countries and companies are saying no to plastics by the dozens, and consumers are following along with them.

As the plastics-ban movement hits major milestones - such as China's latest announcement - we decided to define the bottles, bags and straws that are causing this global stir.

What Is Single-use Plastic?

True to its name, a single-use plastic is disposable plastic that's designed to be used once then tossed or recycled. This includes everything from plastic water drink bottles and produce bags to disposable plastic razors and plastic ribbon - really any plastic item you use then immediately discard. While these items can be recyclable, Megean Weldon of the blog and waste-prevention shop Zero Waste Nerd says that's hardly the norm.

"In reality, very few plastic items can be processed into new materials and products," she says in an email. "Unlike glass and aluminum, plastic isn't processed into the same item it was when it was collected by a recycling center. The quality of plastic is downgraded, so eventually, and inevitably, that plastic will still end up in a landfill."

Take a plastic water bottle. Most bottles say they can be recycled - and based solely on their easily recyclable polyethylene terephthalate (PET) composition, they could be. But nearly seven out of 10 bottles end up in landfills or tossed as litter. This problem increased when China decided to stop accepting and recycling plastic in 2018. For municipalities, that meant recycling became significantly pricier, according to The Atlantic, so many municipalities are now simply opting for the budget-friendly landfill over recycling.

Pair this landfill-first approach with the world's ever-growing plastic consumption - humans produce almost 20,000 plastic bottles per second, according to The Guardian and America's waste grew by 4.5 percent from 2010 to 2015 - it's no wonder the world is overflowing with plastic waste.

Plastic Could Outlive Us All

Think banning all of this plastic is overkill? There are some very solid reasons why it makes sense. First, plastic in landfills just doesn't go away. According to Weldon, a plastic bag takes 10 to 20 years to degrade, while a plastic bottle takes almost 500 years. And, even when it's "gone," its remnants remain.

"Plastic never breaks down or goes away; it only breaks into smaller and smaller pieces until they're so microscopic they can be found in our air and our drinking water," Kathryn Kellogg, author and founder of the waste-reduction website Going Zero Waste, says via email.

Some grocery stores have switched to biodegradable plastic shopping bags as a way to meet consumers in the middle, but research shows this is hardly a savvy solution. One study from researchers at the University of Plymouth in England analyzed 80 single-use plastic grocery store bags made of biodegradable plastic over the course of three years. Their goal? Determine just how "biodegradable" these bags really were. Their findings were published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

Soil and seawater didn't lead to bag degradation. Instead, three of the four types of biodegradable bags were still sturdy enough to hold up to 5 pounds (2.2 kilograms) of groceries (as were the non-biodegradable bags). Those exposed to sun did break down - but that's not necessarily positive either. The small particles from degradation can quickly spread through the environment - think air, ocean or the belly of hungry animals who mistake plastic fragments for food.

Can't We Just Reuse Single-use Plastic?

Another reason many countries are prohibiting single-use plastics is because they shouldn't be reused, despite our best intentions. As many municipalities forego recycling, it's tempting to take matters into your own hands by reusing (and therefore "recycling") plastic bottles and containers. Sure, this may work for bags, but experts say to take caution when it comes to plastic bottles or food containers. One study in Environmental Health Perspectives showed that all plastics used in food containers and plastic bottles could release harmful chemicals if used repeatedly. (This includes those said to be free of bisphenol A [BPA] - a controversial chemical that's been linked to hormonal disruptions.)

While researchers are still analyzing the safety of repeated plastic reuse, experts recommend glass or metal to avoid potentially harmful chemicals. And according to Weldon, it's time we adopt a reuse mindset - be it cotton produce bags, stainless steel straws or a full-on zero-waste.

"The worst thing about any single-use item is that we devalue something to the point that we intend to throw it away," she says. "The convenience culture has normalized this destructive behavior and as result, we produce millions of tons of it every single year. If we change our mindset on what we consume, we will be more aware of the single-use plastic we use and how we can avoid it."
This story is a part of Covering Climate Now's week of coverage focused on Climate Solutions, to mark the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Covering Climate Now is a global journalism collaboration committed to strengthening coverage of the climate story.

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What Are Single-use Plastics and Should They Be Banned?

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In early January 2020, China joined the growing movement of more than 120 countries pledging to ban single-use plastics. The country of 1.4 billion citizens is the No. 1 producer of plastic waste in the world. It topped 60 million tons (54.4 million metric tons) in 2010 based on a September 2018 report titled " Plastic Pollution."

# data[].attributes.body
C- Sept. 13, 2019
R- agrees with my claim
A- Maanvi Singh, ".com" is usually used for commercial use
A- 1 error (no comma before "and")
P- to inform/persuade

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The most ambitious US legislation to tackle the scourge of plastic pollution choking up oceans and piling up in landfills could pass in California Friday - or end up in the dustbin of history. Lawmakers are likely to vote on proposals that aim to phase out most single-use plastic packaging within the next decade.

The two identical bills - one introduced in the state assembly and one in the senate - commit to a 75% reduction in plastic statewide within 10 years. If passed into law, they would require manufacturers to ensure that all single-use packaging produced, sold and distributed in California is fully recyclable or compostable by 2030. Companies that fail to comply could face up to $50,000 a day in fines.

Environmental groups say the legislation is significant because it compels the powerful companies that have allowed cheap, disposable products to proliferate to help solve the pollution crisis.
San Francisco airport announces ban on sales of plastic water bottles
"Single-use plastic packaging is somewhat of a reckless convenience," said Geoff Shester of the environmental advocacy group Oceana, which lobbied for the legislation. "But we can't just put the onus on consumers to solve the problem. We have to get industry involved."

But the legislation has faced varying levels of opposition from the plastics industry and consumer goods manufacturers, which have forced through several changes to the bill in an effort to make the immediate responsibility less onerous.

Some industry critics have said that the legislation is redundant, since many large producers - including Nestle, Procter & Gamble, Pepsi and Unilever - have already committed to reducing packaging waste. But the bill's supporters say the government needs to be able to hold corporations to their word.

Plastics groups have heavily invested in efforts to lobby against the legislation. Novolex Holdings, a South Carolina-based company that manufactures plastic bags, is funding an advocacy group called Californians for the Environment and Recycling to disseminate the message that the bills would make certain baby formula, packaged foods and personal hygiene products such as toothpaste inaccessible to Californians.

"That's nonsense," Shester said. "No one is saying we're going to be consuming less soda or less toothpaste. It's just that the government and industry are going to have to come up with systems that we can all live with."

It is still unclear how those new systems would work, said Julia Stein, a supervising attorney with UCLA's environmental law clinic who was not involved in the drafting of the legislation. "The bills do leave a lot of how this would all work undefined," she said. Built into the legislation is the creation of a panel that includes representatives from local government, recyclers, product manufacturers and packaging designers to advise on specific regulations.

"But passing the bills is certainly a big first step," she said.

Plastic wrapped in plastic: the wasteful reality of America's grocery stores

Currently, less than 10% of the plastic sold in the US each year is recycled. Much of it ends up in landfills, some of it is burned, and millions of tons of plastic ends up in the ocean. A recent Guardian investigation revealed that cities around the country are no longer recycling many types of plastic dropped into recycling bins, partly because of China's ban on importing plastic waste from the US.

Recycling centers across the US are also struggling. A drop in scrap values recently contributed to the shuttering of California's largest recycling center operator rePlanet, which laid off 750 employees in August.

A third bill under consideration in California aims to increase the demand for recycled plastic and boost the state's struggling recycling industry by requiring beverage manufacturers to increase the amount of recycled content in plastic bottles over the next decade.

The state's legislative year ends Friday - which means lawmakers have just a few more hours to either vote on plastics proposals or table themfor further consideration.
Topics

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Most ambitious US law to tackle single-use plastics faces make-or-break moment

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The most ambitious US legislation to tackle the scourge of plastic pollution choking up oceans and piling up in landfills could pass in California Friday - or end up in the dustbin of history. Lawmakers are likely to vote on proposals that aim to phase out most single-use plastic packaging within the next decade.

# data[].attributes.body
C- Jan. 24, 2020
R- neutral (just tells facts)
A- NCSL, ".org" shows that it was made by an organization
A- 3 errors (no commas before "and" in a compound sentence)
P- to inform

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State legislatures have considered a number of measures to reduce the prevalence of plastic bags at grocery stores and other businesses.

Reducing bag use can mitigate harmful impacts to oceans, rivers, lakes, forests and the wildlife that inhabit them. It can also relieve pressure on landfills and waste management.

While some states are focusing on implementing effective recycling programs, others are imposing bans or fees to discourage the use of plastic bags altogether.

Bans and Fees

Eight states-California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, New York, Oregon and Vermont-have banned single-use plastic bags.

In August 2014, California became the first state to enact legislation imposing a statewide ban on single-use plastic bags at large retail stores. The bill also required a 10-cent minimum charge for recycled paper bags, reusable plastic bags, and compostable bags at certain locations. The ban was set to take effect on July 1, 2015, but a referendum forced the issue onto the ballot in the November 2016 election. Proposition 67 passed with 52 percent of the vote, meaning the plastic bag ban approved by the Legislature remains the law. A detailed summary of the law can be found below. Voters also rejected a second measure, Proposition 65, which proposed to create an environmental fund with proceeds from a 10-cent charge for alternative bags.

Hawaii has a de facto statewide ban as all of its most populous counties prohibit non-biodegradable plastic bags at checkout, as well as paper bags containing less than 40 percent recycled material. Bans in Kauai, Maui and Hawaii counties took effect between 2011 and 2013, with Honolulu becoming the last major county to approve the ban in 2015.

New York became the third state to ban plastic bags in 2019 with passage of Senate Bill 1508. The law, which goes into effect March 2020, will apply to most single-use plastic bags provided by grocery stores and other retailers. Bags distributed at the meat/deli counter and bulk food area are exempt, as well as newspaper bags, trash bags, garment bags, bags provided by a pharmacy for prescription drugs, and restaurant takeout bags. The law allows individual counties the option of placing a 5-cent fee on paper bags, with 2 cents going to local governments and 3 cents to the state's Environmental Protection Fund.

Five other states enacted legislation in 2019-Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Oregon and Vermont. In addition to plastic bags, Vermont's SB 113 also placed restrictions on single-use straws and polystrene containers.

In 2009, the District of Columbia enacted legislation requiring all businesses that sell food or alcohol to charge 5 cents for each carryout paper or plastic bag.

Recycling Programs

States have a long history of pursuing legislation related to labeling, recycling, and reusing plastic bags. In 1991, Maine became the first state to enact legislation requiring recycling efforts at retail stores. The law prevents retailers from supplying plastic bags unless they provide a convenient storefront receptacle to ensure used bags are collected and recycled. Since then at least four other states-California, Delaware, New York and Rhode Island-and the District of Columbia have followed suit.

Legislation Summary

State lawmakers have introduced at least 95 bills in 2019 related to plastic bags. Most of these bills would ban or place a fee on plastic bags. Others would preempt local government action or improve bag recycling programs.

2011 CA S 567

Enacted

Prohibits the sale of plastic products labeled as compostable, home compostable, or marine-degradable unless it meets standard specifications. It provides for a civil penalty for a violation.

2019 HB 130

Enacted

Expands upon the existing at-store recycling program regarding the use of single-use plastic bags and limits stores subject to the program from providing single-use plastic bags for only specific uses.

2019 HB 1115

Enacted

Prohibits a retail establishment from providing single-use carryout bags at the point of sale or otherwise making the bags available to customers, with exemptions for certain types and uses of plastic and paper bags.

2017 HB 56

Enacted

Repeals the eight-year ban on the use of plastic bags by retailers on the Outer Banks.

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State legislatures have considered a number of measures to reduce the prevalence of plastic bags at grocery stores and other businesses.

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C- Dec. 11, 2018
R- agrees with my claim, shows a new solution to plastic
A- BRIGHT SIDE (found on YouTube)
A- no erros
P- to inform/persuade

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Scientists Have Found Plastic-Eating Bacteria

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C- Jan. 14, 2019
R- neutral
A- N/A
A- no errors
p- to persuade

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Does Plastic Harm the Environment? | Don't Memorise