Because plastic bags are light and compressible, they constitute only 2 percent of landfill, but since most are not biodegradable they will be there for decades.
According to the International Herald Tribune, “By ‘bagging it,’ Ireland rids itself of a plastic nuisance“by Elisabeth Rosenthal,
There is something missing from this otherwise typical bustling cityscape.
There are taxis and buses. There are hip bars and pollution. Every other person is holding a cellphone to his ear. But there are no plastic bags, the ubiquitous symbol of urban life.
In a determined attempt to deal with litter, Ireland passed a plastic bag tax in 2002 – now 22 euro cents, about 33 U.S. cents – at the register if you want one with your purchases. There was an advertising awareness campaign. Then something happened that was bigger than the sum of these parts.
Within weeks, there was a 94 percent drop in plastic bag use. Within a year, nearly everyone bought reusable cloth bags, which they now keep in the office and the back of their cars. Plastic bags became socially unacceptable – on par with wearing a fur coat or not cleaning up after your dog.
“When my roommate brings one in the flat, it annoys the hell out of me,” said Edel Egan, a photographer carrying a load of groceries in a red backpack.
Countries from China to Australia, cities from New York to San Francisco, have promulgated laws and regulations to address the problem, with decidedly mixed success.
But in the parking lot of the Superquinn Market – Ireland’s largest chain – it is clear that Ireland has solved the problem.
“I used to get half a dozen with every shop, now I’d never ever buy one,” said Cathal McKeown, 40, a civil servant carrying two large cloth bags, bearing the bright green Superquinn motto. “If I forgot these, I’d just take the cart of groceries and put them loose in the boot of the car rather than buy a bag.”
Gerry McCartney, 50, a data processor, who like everyone here has switched to cloth, said, “The tax is not so much, but it completely changed a very bad habit. Now you never see plastic.”
As of last week, nearly 37 billion plastic bags had been used in the first weeks of 2008, according to reusablebags.com, a figure that rises by about a half million bags every minute. The vast majority are not used again, ending up as waste, landfill or litter. Because plastic bags are light and compressible, they constitute only 2 percent of landfill, but since most are not biodegradable they will be there for decades. Plastic bags were invented in the 1970s.
“In the last year, as people have become more conscious about the environment, this has become a lightning rod issue, because its something everyone can relate to,” said Vincent Cobb, founder and president of reusablebags.com, an entrepreneur who founded the company four years ago to promote the issue. “In most of the world you buy anything and you get a plastic bag.”
He added: “Plastic bags are a brilliant product but they are a victim of their own success. They’ve been perceived of as free when they have a real cost to the environment and to consumers.”
Before the so called plas tax, Ireland was struggling with a plastic bag problem that is typical in much of the world. Frank Convery, a professor at University College Dublin and head of ENFO, Ireland’s environmental information service, said: “You’d be driving in the Irish countryside and the sides of the roads were covered in plastic – when the foliage dropped off in the fall what was left on branches was a bunch of old plastic bags waving in the wind. That’s gone and people love it.”
In Ireland, all money from the plastic bag tax goes directly to the environment ministry for use in enforcement and clean-up projects. In a few countries, such as Germany, grocers have long charged a nominal fee for bags and cloth bags are common. But they are the exception.
Bangladesh and some African nations have sought to ban plastic bags because they clog fragile sewer systems, creating a health hazard. And they float in the ocean, endangering marine life.
In the past few months, a number of countries have announced new plans: China will prohibit sellers from handing out free plastic shopping bags this summer during the Olympics, but the charge is not specified and there is little capacity for enforcement. Australia has announced it wants to ban free plastic bags by the end of the year but has not decided how to do it.
“It is on the agenda on many places – people who looked before and gave up, are looking it again,” said Simon McDonnell, a researcher at the University of Illinois, who has studied Ireland’s legislation.
Let’s consider the significance of removing “only 2 percent” of the landfill-bound waste stream with the means used by Ireland: a small, token tax, and moral suasion. Because usage of disposable bags, bags dropped by 94%, and the tax is relatively small (33 cents, presumably in United States currency, since it’s the figure Rosenthal used in her Times piece):
- it hasn’t imposed a large tax on the public;
- retailers are no longer paying for shopping bags as an operating cost
- The cost of moving the bags to landfill and maintaining the landfill has dropped somewhat, although probably not by 2%, because of the fixed costs involving in collecting, sorting and transporting waste;
So Ireland’s bag policy may have a net negative cost – in other words, the Irish economy has saved a little bit of money, and become a bit more efficient. And reduced the scale of the landfill needs by 2%.
49 equivalent solutions needed
[singlepic=247,320,240,,left] Source for EPA chart. The tactic of a tax and a bit of social pressure eliminated 96% of the disposable bag use in Ireland – which had accounted for 2% of Ireland’s municipal waste. With 49 other innovations, we’d make big reductions in the entire municipal waste system. Granted that some waste – disposable diapers, for instance – is harder to eliiminate than others – it might be helpful to see each solution which seems “too small” as part of a cumulative solution
More:
Elisabeth Rosenthal’s piece in The New York Times, “Motivated by a Tax, Irish Spurn Plastic Bags.”
Reusablebags.com – what can you say about a private firm with an overtly environmental purpose and which also can quote The Wall Street Journal :
“Best Overall – We wanted lightweight strong [spacious] bags… we also sought chic. There is little not to like in this virtually weightless, sturdy, comfortable to hold bag…”