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This image was published september 2nd 2017. This image is relevant to my topic. The artist is John Barkow. I did not find any spelling or grammar errors in this image. The purpose of this image is to inform.

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Duluth News Tribune your best local source for news, sports, and weather in the Duluth Area

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This image was published september 15 2019. This image is relevant to my topic. The artist is Swati Singh Sambyal. I did not find any spelling or grammar errors. The purpose of this image is to inform.

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On the occasion of the 73rd Independence Day of the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to the people to make the country free from single-use plastics (SUPs) and to work towards this mission wholeheartedly. This has also brought plastics into the national spotlight. While debates around the ban being a good proposition or bad are going on, it is important to know the extent of the problem in the first place.

As per a 2015 assessment by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), 6.92% of the municipal solid waste (MSW) in the country comprises of plastic waste. With extrapolation of the plastic waste generation data from 60 major cities, this study estimated that around 25,940 tonnes per day (tpd) of plastic waste is generated in India. Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad are among the top generators, while Gangtok, Panjim, Daman, Dwarka and Kavaratti are lowest in the index. Of this, around 15,600 tpd, that is 60% gets recycled, still leaving behind nearly 10,000 tonnes of it, which eventually ends up in the drains, rivers, seas, or simply as the litter that we see everywhere around us. The study also revealed that approximately 70% of plastic packaging products are converted into plastic waste in a short span. It was found that almost 66% of plastic waste comprised of mixed waste-polybags, multilayer pouches used for packing food items, etc. (belonging to HPPE/ LDPE or PP materials), sourced mainly from households and residential localities.

While India's per capita plastic consumption at 11 kg per annum is low as compared to other countries - a tenth of the US and less than a third of China's -- as per estimates, India's trajectory of plastic consumption and plastic waste in the years ahead is set to increase. The plastic processing industry in 2018 estimated that polymer consumption from 2017 to 2022 is likely to grow at 10.4%; nearly half of which would be single-use plastic.

In the last few years, 29 states and UTs have imposed bans on plastic, but this has been merely focused on carry bags.

Considering the given scenario, how will the single-use plastics ban work in the country? Also considering we are literally living in the 'Age of Plastics', how will sound implementation of a SUP ban work out?
A clear definition
As per the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report, single-use plastics are products that are commonly used for plastic packaging and include items intended to be used only once before they are thrown away or recycled. These include, among other items, grocery bags, food packaging, bottles, straws, containers, cups and cutlery. In India, the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers formed a committee in January 2019 to define SUPs and prepare a roadmap for its elimination. In the four committee meetings that have been held since, however, the definition has remained elusive. There is an urgent, dire need to agree on a definition of SUPs, along with a clear guideline defining the scope and challenge of the problem and a clear approach and steps that could be taken on the ground.
Baseline and inventory
What fraction of our plastic waste is single-use plastics? What part of this fraction is packaging waste, cutlery items, carry bags, PET bottles, etc? These are some of the numbers we need in order to assess the scale of such waste as well as look for clear alternatives for such plastics. There needs to be an initiative at the level of the states to push cities to make inventories of their dry waste, considering that the composition of our waste has changed drastically with more plastics in the last several years. Only then can we identify which are the most problematic SUPs and assess the extent of their impact before imposing bans. Such a study has not been done so far.
Segregation
How can one push for recycling and better dry waste management if segregation is not done right? Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0 is not pushing much for segregation. Imposing a ban is only a part, not the whole solution. However, if cities segregate waste into three fractions - wet, dry, and domestic hazardous waste -- and then the dry fraction is further sorted, and if municipalities create infrastructure in terms of material recovery facilities or sorting stations, dry waste can be sorted into over 70-80 fractions. This then has value and a market and would not end up as litter. However, this has had only marginal success. We need to source segregate - end to end. Also, recycling as a silver bullet solution will not work unless there are technological interventions to make it sustainable.
Informal is critical
A bigger debate over the SUP ban issue is on the fact that more than a million workers will lose jobs. As per a 2018 estimate, there are over 3,500-plus organized recycling units and over 4,000 unorganized units. Approximately, six lakh workers are directly employed and another 10 lakh are informal workers. This is a critical number, and there needs to be a clear roadmap on how these workers would be transitioned to any other industry. Also, a phased ban on items could be explored.
Economic alternatives
Presently, some items do have alternatives. For instance, straws. We can easily do away with the straw culture. However, paper straws can be looked at as a viable alternative. For another, plastic carry bags could be easily replaced by cloth/jute bags, however not sourced from virgin cotton material (considering that would have a higher carbon footprint) but from upcycled textiles/cloth. Also, municipalities could look into investing in plate/crockery bank initiatives to replace disposable cutlery, which is a huge menace. Green Protocols in Kerala (a state-wide initiative to discard the use of SUPs during public and private events using crockery banks) and crockery banks in Ambikapur, Chattisgarh, are some examples that have become successes.

Also, letting go of small water bottles (below 250 ml) or PET cups could be explored, considering they are not even enough for a single serving and become discards in seconds. Multi-layered packaging is another menace, however there is no real alternative for it currently. According to the industry body FICCI, 42% of plastic waste is multi-layered packaging. However, systems to segregate and collect multi-layered packaging can be channelized for co-processing, making laminates or making roads and these alternatives can be easily explored.
Is ban the solution?
Though the idea of limiting the inflow by imposing a ban sounds worthy, the question on the economics, accessibility and availability of alternatives remains unanswered. The Centre and states need to focus on a clear definition, baseline study and then evaluate possible actions by using a combination of regulatory, economic and voluntary tools involving various stakeholders. For multi-layered packaging, apart from extended producer responsibility (EPR) which should have schemes such as Deposit Refund Scheme (DRS), consumer responsibility should also be worked upon by targeted campaigns and social engineering tools to make people aware of the concerns and alternatives to plastics.

Industry should be given a timeline for transition via tax rebates and by keeping certain eco-friendly materials tax-free. This, along with regular compliance, monitoring and enforcement, will help India eventually substantially eliminate single-use plastics and plastic waste in general.
(The writer is Programme Manager, Environmental Governance (Waste Management), Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi)

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi has committed to the world that India will eliminate all single-use plastics (SUPs) by 2022. It's a goal worth achieving, but requires governments, industry and citizens to each do their part. This is a fight that we have barely started.

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This image was published wednesday october 10, 2018. This image is relevant to my topic. The artist is Robert Slunick. I did not find any spelling or grammar issues. The purpose of this image is to inform.

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Clear The Air

Removing It from the Ecosystem Could Avert Catastrophe

Next year will be the year of plastic straw bans. Beginning July 1, 2019, Santa Barbara's ordinance will make it unlawful for any beverage or food provider to give customers plastic straws (or plastic stirrers. Plastic cutlery may be given "upon request"). Under the ban for the State of California, which takes effect January 1, customers may ask for a plastic straw at fast-food restaurants (where the bulk of the straws are actually provided), coffee shops, and take-out restaurants, being exempt from state law.

With these kinds of exemptions and limitations, it is reasonable to ask, why bother? The answer is straight forward. Plastic trash has become the environmental scourge of our time. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that last year more than 33 million tons of plastic, most of which was not recycled, was thrown away by Americans. Worldwide the amount is staggering: 6.9 billion tons of plastic became trash last year, with 6.3 billion tons not recycled. Rather than nitpick the limitations of the bans, we should view them akin to having to ask for a glass of water during extreme drought - a window into something far larger than just a plastic straw.

Plastics are ubiquitous in modern society. They have transformed our lives. They've revolutionized medicine and lightened cars and jet aircraft, saving fuel and pollution. Plastics extend the life of food, deliver drinking water to poor people without water distribution systems, and more. These are all really good, important things. On the other hand, single-use plastics (bags, bottles, containers, cutlery, stirrers, and straws) are devastating the environment.

While we've all seen photos of mountains of plastic trash piled high in third-world countries, most of us are not aware that the majority of discarded plastic winds up in landfills and the ocean. In landfills, depending on liners, plastics can leak pollutants into soil and water tables, and take up to 500 years to decompose. In the ocean, where it does not biodegrade, it has begun to threaten the vitality of one of Earth's most necessary ecosystems.

Oceans cover more than 70 percent of the planet. They carry about 50 percent of global production of photosynthesis and support the greatest biodiversity on Earth. They are the "lungs of the planet." Oceans hold up to 54 times more carbon than the atmosphere, and the vast bodies of water drive both climate and weather systems. They supply food for the world (about a billion people rely on fish as their main source of protein) and provide huge economies for fisheries, tourism and recreation. Life on Earth is unimaginable without our oceans. They are now, worldwide, being threatened by plastic pollution.

It's estimated that 165 million tons of plastic debris are now floating around all of our oceans with an average of approximately 8 million more tons entering the oceans annually. This includes microplastics, tiny particles less than five millimeters long, routinely ingested by fish and marine mammals. According to scientific consensus, at current rates of disposal, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish by 2050.

This kind of marine degradation threatens ecosystems, impacts human health and destroys sea life.

Ocean ecosystems (coral reefs, kelp beds, the sea floor, intertidal zones, estuaries, lagoons, the deep sea) are under siege from climate change, overfishing, acidification, habitat degradation, and pollution. Plastic pollution releases hazardous materials which in turn reduce oxygen in these ecosystems, further threatening the diversity of life dependent upon them. Plastic garbage in the ocean brings with it the invasion of non-indigenous species and organisms that literally ride the debris and attack ecosystem vitality. And then there are the Gyres.

Much of the plastic waste is carried by currents into one of five ocean regions forming swirling formations of plastic Garbage Patches, i.e., Gyres. These are The Great Pacific Gyre, the North Atlantic Gyre, the South Atlantic Gyre, the South Pacific Gyre, and the Indian Ocean Gyre. One should not be confused by the name "Patch," these are massive concentrations of plastics. The one between California and Hawaii, is twice the size of Texas. Only 5 percent of these massive concentrations is on the surface; the rest have sunk into the water column and to the bottom of the sea, polluting marine ecosystems and threatening a myriad of species.

Plastics in the ocean threaten human health. Plastics contain toxins linked to cancers, birth defects, immune system problems, and child development issues. These toxins (lead, cadmium, mercury, and diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), a known carcinogen), are passing through the food chain to humans who eat seafood. Indeed, a recent study found that a quarter of fish in markets in California contained plastic microfibers.

Fish in the North Pacific ingest 12,000 to 24,000 tons of plastic each year, which cause intestinal injury and death and transfer plastics up the food chain. Half of sea turtles worldwide have ingested plastic. They mistake floating plastic garbage for food. They choke, sustain internal injury, and die, or starve by thinking they're full from eating plastic.

Seabirds ingest plastic. Plastic ingestion reduces the storage volume of their stomachs, causing starvation. It's estimated that 60 percent of all seabird species have eaten pieces of plastic, with that number predicted to increase to 99 percent by 2050. Marine mammals also ingest and get tangled up in plastic, leading to the decline of already endangered pinnipeds like monk seals and stellar sea lions. Dead whales have been found with bellies full of plastic.

So, this brings us back to plastic straws. Its estimated Americans use and throw away approximately 172 million plastic straws a day. These non-biodegradable, petroleum-based products all too often wind up in local waterways, on beaches, and in the ocean. Plastic straws made the top 10 items picked up on beach cleanups worldwide. The arguments in favor of banning them? Plastic is not biodegradable, once discarded it will never be gone from the Earth, and it is adding to the destruction of our oceans.

An ultimate solution to this environmental catastrophe will require government action. Laws should limit plastic use, improve waste collection infrastructure, and expand recycling. Until then, we should support one-way plastic bans like bags and straws, and each do our part by reducing plastic use.

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Clear The Air Removing It from the Ecosystem Could Avert Catastrophe Next year will be the year of plastic straw bans. Beginning July 1, 2019, Santa Barbara's ordinance will make it unlawful for any beverage or food provider to give customers plastic straws (or plastic stirrers. Plastic cutlery may be given "upon request").

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This image was published 2015-02-17. This image is relevant to my topic. The artist is Mike Luckovich. I did not find any spelling or grammar errors. the purpose of this image is to inform.

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Mike Luckovich's Editorial Cartoons by Mike Luckovich; comics and cartoons, animal, animal welfare, dolphin, editorial, editorial cartoon, environmental, garbage, impact, life, litter, marine, marine pollution, Mike, ocean, ocean animal, ocean pollution, plastic, pollution, refuse, sea, trash, waste, welfare. Available for reprint.

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This video was uploaded august 14 2010. This video is relevant to my topic. The uploader is Healthebay. I did not find any spelling or grammar errors. The purpose of this video is to inform and entertain.

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The Majestic Plastic Bag - A Mockumentary

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this image was published 7/13/2018. This image is relevant to my topic. the artist is Joe Heller. I did not find any spelling or grammar errors.the purpose of this image is to inform.

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Image #:

212975

Artist:
Joe Heller

Published:

07/13/2018

Title:

Plastic Straw Ban

Palette:

Color

Restrictions:

May not be reproduced in newspapers in the USA

Attribution: Plastic Straw Ban by Joe Heller, PoliticalCartoons.com

RELATED VARIATIONS

* To determine a price for the rights to reproduce the cartoons, we need to know about you and your publication. This information will be given only to our cartoonists in their royalty reports. We will not share your information with others. Most purchasers of cartoons are very small publications or newsletters. Our lowest prices are intended for these small publishers, newsletters, schools, small business presentations and non-profit organizations.

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Politicalcartoons.com - Editorial Cartoon 212975

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Image #: 212975 Artist: Joe Heller Published: 07/13/2018 Title: Plastic Straw Ban Palette: Color Restrictions: May not be reproduced in newspapers in the USA Attribution: Plastic Straw Ban by Joe Heller, PoliticalCartoons.com RELATED VARIATIONS * To determine a price for the rights to reproduce the cartoons, we need to know about you and your publication.

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This video was uploaded august 5 2013. This video is relevant to my topic. The uploader is GlobalBanNow. I did not find any flaws in the spelling or grammar. the purpose of this video is to inform and persuade.

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This article was published september of 2019. The article does agree with my claim. The source is the guardian.com. I did not find any spelling or grammar errors. The purpose of this article is to inform.

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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.

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This article was published January 18 2019. This article is relevant to my topic. The publisher and author is Hal Shurtlef. I did not find any spelling or grammar errors. the purpose of this article is to inform.

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Like dozen towns and cities in Massachusetts and other states, Boston recently enacted a ban on plastic shopping bags. It went into effect December 14, 2018. It was a relatively easy vote, because "evil" plastic bags have received extensive bad press that generally ignores important facts.

The same holds true in other jurisdictions, especially those controlled by Democrats who a generation ago cared about American workers, but today too often subjugate the needs of blue collar families to demands by college educated and environmentalist elites, and even noisy grade school kids.

For example, when Los Angeles was talking about banning plastic bags, employees from a business that manufactured plastic bags spoke in person to the city council, begging it not to ban their products. The company employed hundreds of low-skilled people, paid them well and gave them excellent benefits. Many of the employees had worked there for years because they were treated so well.

They presented rational, factual information about their plastic bags. But the city council enacted the ban anyway, put the company out of business, and left the employees jobless, some of them likely homeless.

And of course it's not just plastic bags. Los Angeles just banned plastic straws, and the state legislature is preparing to ban the straws statewide. Santa Barbara, CA banned all single use plastics: no more plastic forks, spoons, knives, Styrofoam cups and take-out boxes. Paper and cardboard only, from now on.

It is all social engineering and fake environmental protection by decree.

Here are some essential facts that you and government officials need to consider carefully in the future.

Plastic shopping bags made in the United States are made from natural gas, not oil - and America has at least another century of natural gas right under our feet. Moreover, plastic grocery bags require 70% less energy to manufacture than paper bags. In fact, it takes far more raw materials and fossil fuel energy to grow and harvest trees, make pulp and turn it into paper bags, than to make plastic bags.

Manufacturing plastic bags also consumes less than 4% of the water needed to make paper bags. In the process, plastic bags produce fewer greenhouse gases per use than paper or cotton bags.

It then takes seven trucks to deliver the same number of paper bags that a single truck can haul if the bags are made from plastic. That means it also takes far more (mostly fossil fuel) energy to transport reusable and paper bags than it does to transport plastic bags.

EPA data show that plastic bags make up only 0.5 % of the U.S. municipal waste stream. Plastic bags are 100% reusable and recyclable, and many stores make that process simple.

Reusable and paper bags take up far more space than plastic bags in landfills, and the airless environment of landfills means paper bags do not decompose for years, or even decades.

Most reusable bags are made in China and Vietnam, then shipped to the USA in fossil fuel burning cargo ships. Reusable bags are made from heavier and thicker plastic or cotton, which takes more energy to produce, even if it's recycled fabric or plastic. A reusable bag must be used no less than 132 times before having a "greener" environmental impact that a plastic grocery bag.

Reusable bags aren't recyclable, and reusable bag giveaways are environmentally costly when unwanted bags end up in the dumpster, often after one or even no use.

Research from Arizona has determined that few people wash their reusable grocery shopping bags, 8% of reusable bags harbor E. coli bacteria, and nearly all unwashed bags harbor other pathogenic bacteria.

Some stores have seen declines in business. One Solana Beach, CA business saw a 25% decline in business following the implementation of a plastic bag ban. A Grocery Outlet Store told a Portland, Oregon newspaper that it lost over $10,000 to shoplifters walking in with and using their own reusable bag to exit with merchandise without going through checkout lines.

Other stores reported losses of hand-carried plastic and metal grocery baskets due to bans.

Following Seattle's ban, store owners surveyed post-ban reported seeing their costs for carryout bags increase between 40 and 200 %

The City of Boston implemented its ban in defiance of the U.S. Constitution Article 1, Section, 8, Clause 3, the Commerce Clause, and the Massachusetts Constitution, amended Article 2, which prohibits municipalities from enacting private or civil laws governing civil relationships. Other governments have no doubt ignored U.S. and state laws and constitutions in enacting their bans.

They are often enabled by entities like the International Council on Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), a United Nations subdivision founded in 1990 to implement the goals of Agenda 21, now called Agenda 2030. Massachusetts Green Communities, and Vision Boston 2030 have all labeled plastic bags a "public enemy," despite the above-mentioned facts.

Bad science and emotionalism lead to bad laws. But you can take steps to stop the madness.

Read and use the "Bag the Ban" flyers that our Camp Constitution organization developed. Watch our video on plastic versus paper bags. Write to me at CampConstitution1@gmail.com

Contact your elected officials, and demand that the bans be lifted.

Refuse to pay the 5 to 10 cents per bag that your city forces store owners to charge.

Encourage store owners to fight the ban. If enough of them worked together, bans could be overturned. The Texas Supreme Court has overturned bans on plastic bags. Other courts could do likewise.

We all care about our environment and planet. But we should be protecting those values from real dangers, employing actions that actually work.

__________

Hal Shurtlef is a life-long Boston resident, US. Army Veteran, Member of the Sons of the American Revolution, father of five homeschooled children, director and co-founder of Camp Constitution.

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Like dozen towns and cities in Massachusetts and other states, Boston recently enacted a ban on plastic shopping bags. It went into effect December 14, 2018. It was a relatively easy vote, because "evil" plastic bags have received extensive bad press that generally ignores important facts.

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this article was published July 13 2018. This article is relevant to my topic. The publisher is Kent Lassman. The domain of .org shows this site may be bias. I did not find any spelling or grammar errors.The purpose of this article is to inform

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Consumers beware: In response to plastic waste collecting in the oceans, states, businesses, and even the European Union have proposed absurd bans on the use of everyday plastic straws, cups, and other items in an attempt to solve ocean pollution.

This week, Starbucks pledged to remove plastic straws from its nearly 30,000 stores worldwide by 2020. Starbucks joins a going list of companies supporting this effort to decrease or ban the use of plastics: IKEA, Royal Caribbean, McDonald's, Hyatt, American and Alaska Airlines, and more.

Recently, the city of Seattle became the first U.S. city to ban plastic straws and utensils, and in May the European Union joined Great Britain and announced a proposal to ban single-use plastic items, including straws.

Banning plastics has been a growing trend over the last several years. But do such laws and policies actually help solve the problem of plastic waste filling up our oceans? Not exactly.

Here are five reasons from CEI's Angela Logomasini why banning consumer plastics actually diverts attention away from real solutions, and instead harms both consumers and the environment.

Most of the waste is not from consumers. The primary culprit of ocean pollution is not straws, cups, and plastic bags. According to the nonprofit The Ocean Cleanup, 46 percent of the Pacific patch is made up of fish nets. When combined with ropes and lines, it accounts for 52 percent of the trash. The rest ranges from large plastic crates and bottle caps to small fragments called microplastics. Obviously, this is not simply a consumer waste issue, and the solutions need to address that.

Studies show the vast majority of plastic waste is due to poor disposal practices outside of the United States. Data in a 2015 Science magazine report reveals that China and 11 other Asian nations are responsible for 77 to 83 percent of plastic waste entering the oceans because of poor disposal practices. These practices include littering, disposed waste that isn't managed, and uncontrolled or poorly supervised landfills. This is in contrast to U.S. waste management practices, like controlled landfills and recycling programs, that decreases water and ocean pollution. A 2017 Environmental Sciences and Technology study reported that up to 95 percent of plastic waste enters oceans from one of 10 rivers-eight in Asia and two in Africa.

Plastic is more sanitary and safer to use than other alternatives. Plastic items are more sanitary than other alternatives. For example, reusable bags often harbor bacteria and could pose a health risk for consumers. Plastic packaging reduces food waste and makes possible transporting and serving food in a way that reduces disease transmission. Recent claims to the contrary do not hold water.

Plastics have important environmental benefits. In many ways, plastics are better for the environment than other alternatives because they are more efficient and use less energy during production and transport. Plastic consumer goods like straws, foam cups, and utensils are less energy intensive to produce than alternatives like paper or aluminum. Production of these items takes more resources, creates more waste, and results in more pollution than the production of disposable plastic items. Reusable items like foam cups, straws, and bags require more than 100 uses-and in more than 1,000 in the case of foam cups-justify the energy required to produce them.

Plastics are economical. In addition to being more efficient and sanitary, plastic consumer products are also less expensive to produce than paper or aluminum alternatives. Because these items are cheaper to make, they are also less expensive for consumers both in the United States and around the globe. Bans of such economical items simply increase costs for businesses and ultimately consumers.

Bottom line. While bans on plastic consumer items like bags, cups, straws, and whatever else may be great material for grandstanding by politicians, they only divert attention from developing real solutions that actually tackle the problem of plastic waste in our oceans. This includes improving the quality of waste management practices around the globe, but particularly in Asia and Africa.
Read more from CEI Senior Fellow Angela Logomasini on why banning consumer plastics won't solve ocean pollution .

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Five Reasons Banning Plastics May Harm the Environment and Consumers - Competitive Enterprise Institute

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Consumers beware: In response to plastic waste collecting in the oceans, states, businesses, and even the European Union have proposed absurd bans on the use of everyday plastic straws, cups, and other items in an attempt to solve ocean pollution. This week, Starbucks pledged to remove plastic straws from its nearly 30,000 stores worldwide by [...]

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This article was published in october 16, 2019. This article is relevant to my topic. the authors are Lillian Power, Catherine Plume, Matt Seaholm, and Jean-Cyril Walker. I did not find any spelling or grammar errors. The purpose is to inform.

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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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This article was published in 2015. The article does agree with my claim. the source is onyalife.com. I did not find any spelling or grammar errors. the purpose of this article is to inform.

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As a modern business, it's essential you keep up with the trends and movements that are important to consumers. Now, after so many years of a throwaway, disposable culture being the norm, buyers are starting to embrace the shift towards sustainability. Take an easy step to make a difference and cut down on single-use plastic.

Ensure you're not left behind by refusing to change with the times and challenge the notion that items are things to be used and disposed of at whim. One way you can do this is by using eco friendly promotional products, such as reusable bags or sandwich wraps. These are items that eliminate the need for their single-use alternatives, and help to make choosing products that can be used time and time again the norm.

If you need any more convincing, here are three more reasons why society needs to cut down on its reliance on single-use plastic items.
Creating single-use plastic items uses up significant resources
Have you ever thought about all the precious resources and energy that goes into each individual plastic bag? Plastics are made from non-renewable resources such as crude oil, gas and coal, according to the environmental organisation Clean Up Australia, which also states that enough petroleum to power a car for 1km goes into the production of just under 9 plastic bags.

Then, take into account the energy that goes into transporting the plastic item from its factory to where it's distributed - it likely travels some distance before it's given to you at the supermarket.

That's a lot of energy and resources going into an item that tends to be discarded immediately after use.
Plastic takes a long time to break down
Single-use plastic, whether from lunch wrap or bags, takes anywhere from 20 to 1,000 years to break down. That's a lot of years spent wrecking havoc on the environment, where not only can it look unsightly, but can also harm or maim animals.

Thousands of birds and sea-dwellers are killed by rogue plastic items each year, with bags floating along waterways, finding their way into oceans and other parts of the environment where animals might mistake them for food. Because they're light and the wind catches them easily, they can be transported far and wide.

For this reason, it's essential the amount of plastic bags in circulation is reduced and cut down on single-use plastic waste.
Despite progress, Australia still uses a lot of plastic bags and other items
Billions of single-use plastic bags are used annually in Australia, and even more around the world. Most of these come from supermarkets, followed by fast food and takeaway outlets and other shops such as clothing stores.

While some of these bags are recycled, more items end up being sent to landfill, with millions also ending up polluting the land and water.

Some states have placed restrictions on the provision of plastic bags, which is one way in which their prevalence can be reduced. Other outlets now charge a small fee for the use of one of these items.

However, there's no doubt that single-use plastic bags are still ubiquitous in society. That's why you can make a difference by providing individuals with the means to opt out of using these products with a stylish and practical alternative, such as an eco friendly and reusable bag. Making a change requires leadership, perseverance and a committed and passionate attitude towards the problem, all of which are qualities that impress consumers.

There are so many reasons why reducing the amount of single-use plastic bags in circulation is a good idea, so now all it takes is more individuals, businesses and groups to act on it to make sure the idea doesn't get lost or forgotten. You can start having a positive impact today, simply cut down on single-use plastic.

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3 Reasons Why The World Needs To Cut Down On Single-Use Plastic

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As a modern business, it's essential you keep up with the trends and movements that are important to consumers. Now, after so many years of a throwaway, disposable culture being the norm, buyers are starting to embrace the shift towards sustainability. Take an easy step to make a difference and cut down on single-use plastic.