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Posted on February 18, 2020 at 10:20 am by Carol Tannenhauser

By Lisa Kava

If you don't own reusable shopping bags, now is the time to invest in some. You may also want to stockpile your favorite take-out plastic bags.

Starting March 1, stores in New York State will be banned from giving single-use plastic bags to customers at checkout as the New York State Bag Waste Reduction Law goes into effect.

Shoppers will need to either bring their own reusable bags or expect to pay 5 cents or more for each paper bag they receive at checkout. The ban includes grocery stores, food establishments, and other New York businesses.

The purpose of the law is to protect the environment and wildlife, and to cut down on waste. "New Yorkers use an estimated 23 billion plastic bags annually - each for about 12 minutes - and approximately 85% of this staggering total ends up in our landfills, recycling machines, waterways, and streets," a spokesperson from the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) wrote to WSR.

Certain bags are exempt from the law, including bags used by pharmacies to carry prescription drugs, produce bags for bulk items such as fruits and vegetables, and dry cleaner garment bags. For a complete list of exemptions, click here.

Stores will continue to sell packages of plastic bags, such as garbage bags, ziploc bags, baggies and bags for cleaning up after dogs, according to the DEC spokesperson.

The 5-cent fee on paper bags at checkout will go to the NYS Department of Tax and Finance, he explained. He added that NYC is one of three regions in the state adopting the "paper bag carry out reduction fee" (the 5-cent charge.) Individual stores may choose to charge more than 5 cents to make a profit. DEC strongly encourages all New Yorkers to #BYOBagNY - Bring Your Own Bag.

The new law won't affect Trader Joe's or Whole Foods, as both were ahead of the game. Trader Joe's stopped giving plastic bags to customers on checkout in 2019, Whole Foods stopped in 2008.

How are other establishments on the Upper West Side preparing? WSR spoke to merchants and shoppers.

"We have been working with our bag supplier on developing reusable shopping bags that will be reasonably priced," said Scott Goldshine, General Manager of Zabar's & Co., Inc. "Hopefully that will encourage customers to carry the bags with them to use frequently, which will cut down the use of all other bags as well. It will be very interesting to see how the law will be enforced and I'm sure it will take a while to get used to."

At Fairway's 74th and Broadway location, a manager told us the store has always sold reusable bags. He expects those sales will increase and believes most New Yorkers will know to bring their own bags starting March 1. Employees at the Broadway store are "waiting for further instructions from Fairway's corporate office," the manager said.

Kenny Wolk, owner of Park West Pharmacy on Columbus Avenue at 82nd Street, applauds the law's objective but recognizes people will need to adjust. "Today it was raining," he said in an interview. "A customer came in and bought a handful of things. I gave him a large plastic bag. He was so grateful saying that the rain would have ruined a paper bag."

"This new law might be more of an adjustment for men," Wolk added. "Women often come into the store carrying reusable bags. Last week a woman pulled a beautiful reusable bag out of her purse. But many men do not carry a purse so might not be in the habit of carrying reusable bags."

We asked shopper and neighborhood resident Steve Martin if he agrees. "Normally, I know if I am going shopping, so taking a bag with me would not be a big deal. But I agree that generally it could be a little more inconvenient for men."

How do other Upper West Siders feel about the upcoming change?

Some are enthusiastic and have already made lifestyle changes. "I love the efforts being made by retailers and consumers to use sustainable and recyclable products. This is a big win for environmental protection," said Christine Simmons. "I carry a bag to and from work daily and store reusable bags for my groceries so I'm never caught without or have to resort to using plastic bags."

Others are cynical. "I like this new law but think that unfortunately we will find other ways to carry our groceries that will continue adding to our landfill. Some may use heavier plastic bags which will inevitably end up in landfill and will take even longer to break down," said Tessie Nedelman.

And others who support the law wonder about potential disadvantages. "I am concerned about excessive single-use plastic, so more than happy to carry reusable bags for shopping. I will probably keep a few of those thin nylon bags in my purse," said Katherine Weber. "However, I have always been an obsessive saver of plastic shopping bags and reuse them for dog poop bags and cat litter waste. So in my case (and I'm sure I'm not the only one) it does feel a bit ironic that now I might have to purchase new plastic baggies for this purpose."

Like it or not, a big change for all is just around the corner. Hopefully, in time, we will improve the environment as a result. And, eventually, "Bring Your Own Bag" may be just another part of our daily existence.

For more details on the Bag Waste Reduction Law, check out the state's website here.

The New York City Department of Sanitation is giving out free reusable bags. For information click here.

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Single-Use Plastic Bags Will be Banned Starting March 1; Why It Might Be Tougher for Men

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Posted on February 18, 2020 at 10:20 am by Carol Tannenhauser By Lisa Kava If you don't own reusable shopping bags, now is the time to invest in some. You may also want to stockpile your favorite take-out plastic bags.

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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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The policy: Plastic bag bans and taxes

Where: In more than 400 states and cities in the US

In place since: 2007
The problem:
Plastic bags are forever. The thin sacks that hold our groceries, toothpaste, and takeout meals have little hope of being recycled, and instead just might be reused as liners for our trash cans or containers for our dogs' waste, after which they find themselves either blown into storm drains and rivers or hopelessly clogging landfills. According to one 2009 estimate, some 100 billion of these bags were used a year in the United States and somewhere between 500 billion and 1.5 trillion worldwide.
How it worked:
More than 400 laws and ordinances across the country ban or tax plastic bags, according to Jennie Romer, an attorney at the Surfrider Foundation and a leading advocate and expert on plastic bag policies. The bans actually started outside the United States, with Bangladesh banning them countrywide in 2002 and Pakistan announcing recently that it, too, will ban single-use plastic bags. "Our slight change in habits will do miracles for future generations," one politician wrote.

In the United States, bans were spurred by a wide range of environmental groups, especially those concerned with oceans and waterways like the Surfrider Foundation. Plastic bags and other plastic products can easily wind up in rivers, storm drains, and oceans, creating massive floating patches of garbage and threatening marine life. (Activists are already moving on from plastic bags to encouraging bans on plastic straws and foam food containers.) California passed the first statewide ban in 2014, after several local governments had already banned single-use plastic, including San Francisco, which did so in 2007.

While a straightforward ban may seem like the most effective way to stop people from using plastic, researchers and consultants suggest another strategy is working better: a tax on all non-reusable bags, which may or may not be combined with an outright ban on some plastic.

That's because straightforward bans can lead to skyrocketing use of paper bags or thicker plastic that's allowed because it's considered reusable. While paper bags do not have the unique environmental downsides of single-use plastic (they can be recycled more easily and they don't blow around as much), the processing of paper can be environmentally nasty. California's ban, which also places a 10-cent tax on paper or reusable bags, is one of the most extensive in the nation, while all of Hawaii's counties have passed laws that ban single-use bags, with some also tacking on a tax as high as 15 cents on other bags.

This has led to some backlash, including lawsuits from the plastics industries and efforts to roll back the laws. More than a dozen states, typically more conservative ones like Oklahoma or Mississippi, have passed laws that preempt local bag policies and put the question of taxes or bans solely in the hands of the state legislature.

Chicago banned thin plastic bags in 2015, but it allowed stores to use thicker plastic bags that could ostensibly be reused. "When that ban went into effect, the retailers' response was that 'Our customers want plastic, we can't offer thin, let's just start offering thick plastic bags," said Tatiana Homonoff, an assistant professor of economics and public policy at New York University who has studied the plastic bag laws. The resilience of stores giving their customers some kind of plastic bag, she says, was "an unintended consequence of leaving close substitutes unregulated." Chicago soon scrapped that policy and by February 2017 had implemented a new law: a 7-cent tax on all checkout bags.

"That's where we see big changes in disposable bag use," Homonoff said.

A study of the law by Homonoff and researchers at the University of Chicago and consulting firm ideas42 found that after the new policy went into effect, "Customers were much less likely to use a disposable bag, and switched to reusable bags or no bags at all." Before the tax, about 80 percent of Chicago consumers used disposable bags and fewer than 10 percent used no bags at all. In the year after it went into effect, "the tax led to a large decrease in the proportion of consumers using a disposable bag, with roughly half of consumers switching to reusable bags while the rest opted for no bags at all."

According to Homonoff's research in both Chicago and Montgomery County, Maryland, "very small financial incentives can lead to big behavioral change," she said. The fact that small fees, 5 or 7 cents, can lead to a big reduction in disposable bag use suggests that a sizable portion of the population is perfectly happy to use a reusable bag or not use a bag at all, and need just the smallest push to get there. Homonoff said that in her surveys, people would tell her, "I have a reusable bag in my car. Now I bring it into the store and actually use it."

"As long as there is a fee component in place, that really drives people to not want to get that bag," Romer said. "You see people walking out with something pressed under the arm."

In Montgomery County, which implemented a 5-cent bag fee, the portion of customers observed by researchers at eight stores in the county who used disposable bags went from 82 percent to 40 percent, while the number of bags per trip also fell, according to Homonoff's research. Beyond any environmental effects, these policies also seem to be changing the culture around single-use plastic, which many people know is environmentally damaging but still need a slight nudge to change their behavior. Alongside the bans, there's been a surge of public awareness of the persistence of plastic waste and the folly of recycling it.

And these policies have real effects downstream - literally. San Jose, California, implemented its Bring Your Own Bag Ordinance in 2012, which included a ban on single-use plastic and a 10-cent fee for paper, and found dramatic decreases in "bag litter" in the city's creeks and waterways. "The litter surveys demonstrated a reduction in bag litter of approximately 89 percent in the storm drain system," a city environment and transportation committee report read, "60 percent in the creeks and rivers, and 59 percent in city streets and neighborhoods, when compared to data collected from 2010 and/or 2011 (pre-ordinance) to data from 2012 (post-ordinance)."

What drove the decrease in litter wasn't just more people using more reusable bags - although that happened - but also a rise in using no bags. Reusable bag use jumped from about 4 percent of bags, the city said, to 62 percent, while the portion of people who used no bag doubled, and the average number of bags used per customer fell from three to fewer than one.

The Ferguson Foundation, a Washington, DC-area nonprofit group that organizes cleanup efforts in and around the Potomac River, found that after DC implemented a 5-cent fee in 2010 on single-use bags, the number of plastic bags removed by volunteers dropped by almost three-quarters.

But the preferred policy of the advocates and researchers isn't being implemented everywhere. After the New York City Council approved a 5-cent fee for all takeout bags, the state legislature and Gov. Andrew Cuomo killed it before later passing a statewide law that banned plastic and allowed individual counties to impose a tax on paper.

"From what we've seen in other cities, it's not going to be particularly effective," Homonoff said of the New York law, as opposed to a tax on all takeaway bags. Romer, who worked on previous attempts to implement plastic laws in New York City, described the new law as "disappointing." While New York City is following through by taxing paper, it is not required across the state, which means that outside the city, municipalities might allow for unlimited and untaxed paper bag usage, thus not encouraging overall bag usage to go down.

"We really want people to not get a bag at all if they're getting an item or two, or bring their own bag," Romer said. "I like visiting California to see that that works."
Correction: Matthew Zeitlin is a writer in New York. An earlier version of this story misstated that an estimated 500 million to 1.5 trillion plastic bags are used each year worldwide. It should be 500 billion.

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Do plastic bag taxes or bans curb waste? 400 cities and states tried it out.

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The policy: Plastic bag bans and taxes Where: In more than 400 states and cities in the US In place since: 2007 The problem: Plastic bags are forever.

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What Are Single-Use Plastics?

Put simply, single-use plastics are goods that are made primarily from fossil fuel-based chemicals (petrochemicals) and are meant to be disposed of right after use-often, in mere minutes. Single-use plastics are most commonly used for packaging and serviceware, such as bottles, wrappers, straws, and bags.

Though plastic-a chain of synthetic polymers, essentially-was invented in the mid-19th century, it wasn't until the 1970s that its popularity skyrocketed. Manufacturers began replacing traditionally paper or glass staples with lighter or more durable and affordable plastic alternatives; plastic jugs replaced milk jars, for instance. Since the 1950s, 8.3 billion metric tons of plastics have been produced, and half of that in the past 15 years alone.

There are many uses for plastic that are not only reasonable but important, such as surgical gloves, or straws for people with disabilities. But these cases make up a small fraction of single-use plastic. According to a 2017 study, more than half of non-fiber plastic, which excludes synthetic fabrics like polyester and nylon, comes from plastic packaging alone, much of which is for single-use items.

Why Is Single-Use Plastic Bad?

Single-use plastics are a glaring example of the problems with throwaway culture. Instead of investing in quality goods that will last, we often prioritize convenience over durability and consideration of long-term impacts. Our reliance on these plastics means we are accumulating waste at a staggering rate. We produce 300 million tons of plastic each year worldwide, half of which is for single-use items. That's nearly equivalent to the weight of the entire human population.

Reducing plastic use is the most effective means of avoiding this waste (and the impacts linked to plastic production and use). Carrying reusable bags and bottles is one great way to avoid single-use plastics in our day-to-day lives; more on preventing plastic waste can be found below.

Recycling more plastic, more frequently, reduces its footprint. Polyethylene terephthalate, one of the most commonly recycled plastics and the material that makes up most water and soda bottles, can be turned into everything from polyester fabric to automotive parts. But a whopping 91 percent of all plastic isn't recycled at all. Instead it ends up in landfills or in the environment. Single-use plastics in particular-especially small items like straws, bags, and cutlery-are traditionally hard to recycle because they fall into the crevices of recycling machinery and therefore are often not accepted by recycling centers.

Left alone, plastics don't really break down; they just break up. Over time, sun and heat slowly turn plastics into smaller and smaller pieces until they eventually become what are known as microplastics. These microscopic plastic fragments, no more than 5 millimeters long, are hard to detect-and are just about everywhere. Some microplastics are even small by design, like the microbeads used in facial scrubs or the microfibers in polyester clothing. They end up in the water, eaten by wildlife, and inside our bodies. They've even made their way up to the secluded Pyrenees mountain range and down to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. For wildlife, microplastics can be particularly dangerous; when eaten they can easily accumulate inside an animal's body and cause health issues, like punctured organs or fatal intestinal blockages.

Single-Use Plastics and Pollution

Although single-use plastic pollution accumulates most visibly on our streets, in fact our water suffers even more. Litter can be the first stage in a waste stream that enters waterways as plastics tossed on the street are washed away by rain or travel via storm drains into rivers and streams. Our waterway plastic pollution is particularly concentrated: Just ten rivers carry 93 percent of the world's total amount of plastic that enters the oceans via rivers each year.

In 2015 researchers from the University of Georgia estimated that between 4.8 million and 12.7 million metric tons of plastic per year make their way into the oceans via people living within 30 miles of a coast. The majority of this pollution-dominated by single-use plastic waste-comes from countries lacking infrastructure to properly manage waste, particularly in Asia. India, for example, generates 25,940 tons of plastic waste every day but collects only 60 percent of it. (It's also important to remember that waste management is just one part of the global materials cycle. For instance, a lot of the plastic produced in Asian countries is for products that serve U.S. demand-and the United States often sends plastic waste back to these countries for recycling.)

Marine animals bear the burden of this influx of garbage into their habitats. Beached whales have been found with stomachs full of plastic trash. And recent studies found plastic in the guts of 90 percent of the seabirds tested and 100 percent of the turtles. Alarmingly, scientists estimate that there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean by weight in 2050. Not only is plastic estimated to kill millions of marine animals and seabirds each year, but it's also contaminating seafood that humans have relied on for millennia, particularly with microplastics in animals' guts.

Our addiction to plastic also has negative impacts on the climate. A recent report showed that plastic production contributes to planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions at every point in its life cycle. The process of drilling for plastic's source materials, oil and gas, leads to methane leaking and flaring and is often combined with clearing forests and wetlands that otherwise would have sequestered carbon. Refineries where crude oil is turned into plastic make up one of the most greenhouse gas-intensive industries in the manufacturing sector. And "cracker plants"-which break, or "crack," ethane molecules, a component of natural gas, into the chemical building blocks of plastic products-are energy intensive and highly polluting. In 2015 a mere 24 of these ethane cracker facilities in the United States had the combined carbon output of 3.8 million passenger vehicles. And the recent fracking boom, resulting in a surplus of oil, is fueling a subsequent rise in cracker plants, too. That's bad news for our carbon reduction goals: if plastic production continues unabated, its greenhouse gas emissions could reach 1.34 gigatons per year by 2030 -equal to adding nearly 300 new coal-fired power plants-even as the need to curb global climate change becomes more urgent.

Plastic pollution-whether in our oceans, piling up on our coastlines, or contributing to our climate crisis-impacts vulnerable communities first. Even if plastic doesn't end up in the ocean, recycled plastic is often exported from high-income countries to developing countries to process. But the sheer amount of plastic waste inundates communities until they are drowning under thousands of tons of plastic trash. This is the case particularly in Southeast Asia, which has begun to import much of the plastic that used to go to China for recycling. Not only does the waste destroy the land itself, but when plastic is incinerated (as is the case for unrecyclable plastic at some illegal facilities) its toxic fumes quickly become a health hazard for residents, leading to everything from skin rashes to cancer. Such is the case with many environmental crises: the worst effects are pushed onto overburdened communities with the fewest resources to fight back.

Should We Ban Single-Use Plastics?

Plastic is putting a strain on waste management systems, our oceans, and vulnerable communities the world over. A wave of single-use plastic bans is sweeping the country and the globe-most often on plastic bags, straws, stirrers, and takeout clamshells. (Some places are going so far as to ban single-use plastics entirely; most notably, India intends to go this route by 2022.) Among the U.S. cities to outlaw plastic straws are Malibu, Berkeley, Seattle, and Miami Beach. Plastic bag bans-ideally accompanied by a fee on paper bags-are also catching on. New York State and Hawaii just passed theirs, set to go into effect in 2020, and California's bag ban, which was passed in 2014, has been shown to have reduced plastic bag usage by 85 percent (with some customers opting to pay a 10 cent fee for thicker plastic bags) and has reduced coastal pollution.

What do the bans accomplish? They prevent millions of tons of plastic from entering the waste stream each year. And when it comes to waste that lasts forever, every ton counts. In New York, 23 billion plastic bags are used by residents each year. Not only does banning single-use plastic reduce pollution, but it also reduces demand for plastic production that's contributing to global climate change. But beyond these impacts, the bans have cultural effects. Companies are forced to innovate, rethinking their designs and sourcing sustainable materials. And they help shift consumer mind-sets, as people begin to recognize that exorbitant and avoidable waste is not sustainable.

Large producers of single-use plastics can make a big environmental impact. As part of the Break Free From Plastic movement, Greenpeace volunteers conducted an audit of plastic pollution along coastlines, sifting through tens of thousands of individual pieces across 42 countries to identify the pollution's sources. They discovered that Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Nestlé products were found most often. Coca-Cola has said that it alone produces three million tons of plastic packaging each year, equivalent to a terrifying 200,000 plastic bottles per minute. Policies like bottle bill laws-which generally require retailers to add a fee on individual bottles, which can then be partially redeemed by customers when they recycle-are a way to increase corporate responsibility for waste while providing a monetary incentive to recycle. In Taiwan, which was once overflowing with so much trash that it spurred public protest and the nickname "Garbage Island," companies now either manage their own waste or subsidize government-run infrastructure. Accompanied by high social accountability and musical garbage trucks, that strategy has proved wildly effective: the island now reports recycling rates above 50 percent.

Some companies are taking initiative on their own. McDonald's swapped its plastic straws for paper at its United Kingdom and Ireland restaurants. Disney is eliminating single-use plastic straws and stirrers at all its theme parks, resorts and properties. And Starbucks, which uses an estimated one billion plastic straws per year, is phasing them out in favor of paper ones. These actions are a response to calls for change and shifting consumer habits.

Avoiding Single-Use Plastics

Individual choices -and the collective shifts they bring about-add up quickly. Making just one simple swap, like purchasing a reusable water bottle, can spare the environment hundreds of plastic bottles each year. Here are a few more tips for ridding your life (and your community) of single-use plastics for good.

Always pack a reusable bag when shopping. (And yes-reusable totes are better for the environment than plastics, recent media claims aside.)

Cook more often, to reduce your use of plastic-heavy takeout containers.

Buy in bulk. Avoid individually packaged goods, like snack packs.

Though buying online sometimes has a lower carbon footprint than shopping in a store (skip the express delivery option, if you can), online shipments are still chock-full of plastic. Your best bet to reduce your footprint and plastic waste? Walk, bike, or take public transit to buy in-person.

Avoid plastic wrap altogether by storing leftovers in reusable containers. Try reusable and compostable beeswax wrap for an easy and decorative option.

Buy a metal or bamboo reusable straw. Pack it alongside reusable cutlery (like wood, bamboo, or metal chopsticks) for sustainable eating on the go.

Talk to the owners of the restaurants you frequent. Ask if they have nonplastic alternatives to plastic straws, stirrers, or bags.

Speak out in support of local plastic bans, whether by calling your local government representative, submitting an op-ed to your city's newspaper, or simply starting conversations with neighbors.

Let companies that make your favorite products know that you care about the packaging. Tweet, call, or send letters to these companies to ask them to switch to more durable, recyclable, compostable, renewable, and/or recycled-content packaging with less fossil fuel-derived plastic.

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Here's everything you need to know about the most ubiquitous (and avoidable) kind of plastic waste: the kind made to be tossed in mere minutes.

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Experts say Congress could look to local policies to shape national legislation on throwaway plastics

Every minute an estimated 2 million single-use plastic bags are handed out at checkout counters across the world. They contribute to the 300 million tons of plastic waste generated each year, much of which ends up in the environment where it threatens wildlife, endangers public health and costs billions to clean up.

Legal analysts have advised Congress that the US could reduce its contribution to the global plastic pollution crisis by implementing sweeping federal policies to restrict plastic use. Photo by velkr0 / Flickr.

How do you solve a problem this big?

According to legal analysts who advised Congress at a briefing in January, the United States could reduce its contribution to the global plastic pollution crisis by implementing sweeping federal policies that restrict plastic use and hold manufacturers accountable for responsibly handling waste.

The expert group, composed of members from Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic at UCLA and ocean conservation organization Surfrider Foundation, specifically recommended that Congress craft federal legislation banning single-use plastic products such as bags, straws, and expanded polystyrene foam food containers. They also called for establishing "extended producer responsibility" schemes, which hold plastic manufacturers responsible for the waste they create.

Their recommendations, along with a new report, drew on research into existing legislation targeting plastic pollution in the United States and across the world. The experts found that the key to reducing plastic pollution is curbing consumption. The report and its presentation resulted from a semester-long project by UCLA students Charoula Melliou and Divya Rao, in collaboration UCLA attorney Julia E. Stein, Surfrider's legal expert Angela Howe, and plastic bag legal expert Jennie Romer.

"We have to stem the tide of plastic entering our waterways and landfills by reducing our consumption in the first instance," says Stein.
What Works
There are currently no federal laws restricting single-use plastics, but that doesn't mean there aren't good examples that could serve as useful templates.

According to Stein, Congress could shape federal policy by following existing local and state laws that have already been crafted to tackle plastic problems with bans on all types of single-use plastic items, from bags to expanded polystyrene foam food containers to straws. California made headlines in February after lawmakers proposed a phaseout of all plastic products that aren't completely recyclable.

Such laws are grounded in scientific evidence that plastics are problematic because they don't break down in the natural environment and pose a danger to wildlife and probably people.

There's a precedent for using state and local laws to help craft national legislation: microbeads. After several states and municipalities banned the sale and manufacture of health and beauty products containing these ecologically damaging exfoliating plastic beads, the United States passed a federal actdoing the same.

Most experts agree banning single-use plastic products is a more useful strategy for reducing plastic use and pollution than recycling, which is much less effective. A ban also tackles the issue at the source, helping to curb greenhouse gases coming from the rapidly expanding petrochemical industry that uses fossil fuels to produce plastic.
Commonly Used Plastics
With plastic so ubiquitous, where to start? Experts say that banning just the most commonly used and littered items could cut pollution significantly.

That puts single-use plastic bags front and center.

Plastic bags are among the top five most commonly found items on shorelines, according to global beach cleanup data. So it comes as little surprise that the most legally targeted plastic item worldwide has become the plastic bag. On the whole, research suggests focused legislation is highly effective at reducing plastic bag use and the presence of bags in the natural environment.

"Single-use plastic bags are particularly problematic as a source of marine debris because of both the quantity generated as well the mobility of bags," says Anastasia Telesetsky, a professor of law at the University of Idaho who has argued for the need for a global treaty banning most single-use plastics. "Some products are definitely more problematic than others though regrettably most single-use plastic packaging products can be found as part of 'mismanaged waste' somewhere in the world."

Suffolk County on Long Island, New York, adopted a five-cent plastic bag fee at the beginning of 2018. According to county legislator William "Doc" Spencer, in just a few weeks, several grocery stores reported drops in plastic-bag use of as much as 80 percent.

And Suffolk County isn't an isolated case. Many success stories about plastic bag legislation are documented in the briefing report. Washington, DC saw an 85-percent reduction in plastic bag use after a five-cent tax was implemented in 2009. In San Francisco, plastic bag pollution dropped 70 percent following a complete ban on plastic bags with a 10-cent fee on compostable and paper bags that went into place in 2007.

While plastic bag legislation may help reduce use and pollution on a local level, the expert group's briefing report highlights a lack of consistency in US plastic bag legislation. And some states have implemented or attempted to implement rules that prohibit legislation regulating plastic bags and other problematic plastic consumer products, which is why proponents of plastic bans are pushing federal action.

According to the experts, the ideal federal legislation on plastic bags would mirror what's been found to be the most effective on both local and national levels elsewhere: A ban on all thin plastic bags, and a fee on all other kinds of bags such as those made from paper, thick plastic, and compostable materials. And it would be sweeping, so no part of the country could obstruct such a ban.

To further curb use and pollution of throwaway plastics, states and municipalities have also begun to ban plastic straws, plastic foodware like cups and utensils, expanded polystyrene foam food containers, and cigarette smoking on beaches. Several companies have stopped using plastic straws and other single-use plastic items to create less waste.

The briefing's authors suggest that Congress should, at minimum, create a rule ending automatic distribution of plastic straws at all restaurants and bars and ban expanded polystyrene foam products outright.

"In the United States, where local efforts to enforce source control laws are under threat of preemption in several states, having comprehensive federal legislation that requires source control is a way to protect and augment the work of local governments that are trying to combat plastic pollution," Stein says.
Broader Focus
Besides banning common problematic single-use plastic products, the expert group also recommends Congress pass legislation that would hold corporations accountable for handling plastic waste at the end of its life.

Extended producer responsibility regulations require manufacturers of plastic products to take their items back for reuse, recycling, or disposal to increase recycling rates and prevent plastic waste from entering landfills and the natural environment. Container-deposit legislation is one example of such a program that's widespread - though not ubiquitous - around the United States.

Telesetsky says these schemes may be useful when designed to manage long-lasting plastic products, but they're trickier to implement and incentivize when plastic packaging is involved. "The problem with applying extended producer responsibility principles to existing single-use plastic is that there is simply no market for all of the reprocessed cheap packaging plastics that are being generated," says Telesetsky. "Cheap plastics have a finite usable life before they are inevitably landfilled or burned."

Telesetsky praises the new briefing because it raises awareness of a critical problem. But unlike the briefing group, she proposes banning single-use plastic products outright, on a global scale, in addition to incentivizing innovation in creating new biodegradable products and packaging, which she argues would stop plastic pollution more closely to its source. And it would address the issue on what she sees as a more radical and international - and thus more impactful - scale.

Yet Stein emphasizes that while her briefing has a national focus specifically tailored to US Congress, the wider view is international.

"We support international efforts to address plastic pollution, but the United States also needs to take responsibility at home for its own contribution to the problem."

Will Congress take up that challenge?

Stein says she and other members from the UCLA-Surfrider group who traveled to Washington, DC in January held several legislative briefings for Congressional members and staff, including those involved with last year's 2018 Save Our Seas Act.

The act provides some funding for federal marine cleanup and waste-prevention efforts through NOAA's Marine Debris Program. Already, two of the bill's cosponsors, Senators Dan Sullivan (R-AK) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), have begun working on a revamped "2.0 version."

"Overall, we felt the reception was positive - plastic pollution is a topic that is on the minds of the American public and the congresspersons who represent them," Stein says. "We're hopeful that Save Our Seas 2.0 legislation in the Senate may provide a chance to think about comprehensive federal strategies to reduce plastic pollution."

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Crafting a Federal Ban on Single-Use Plastics

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Experts say Congress could look to local policies to shape national legislation on throwaway plastics Every minute an estimated 2 million single-use plastic bags are handed out at checkout counters across the world. They contribute to the 300 million tons of plastic waste generated each year, much of which ends up in the environment where it threatens wildlife, endangers public health and costs billions to clean up.

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C- 2020
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C- 2019
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Single-use plastic ban across Europe (EU) - BBC News - 24th October 2018

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C- 2018
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