As of 2004, a California environmental group – Californians Against Waste – estimated that Americans use 84 billion plastic bags every year. Washington State – merely one State in a nation of fifty – reports that nearly 270,000 tons of plastic bags get thrown away each year. That means that nearly 5 percent of all the garbage in the state of Washington is going straight to landfills (Lowy n.p.).
Our nation must now model Dublin, Ireland. Dublin is the epitome of urban life, yet they manage without plastic bags. In 2002, a tax on plastic bags was enacted which has led to profound changes. It is now considered social suicide to walk around Dublin with a plastic bag slung over your shoulder. By raising the tax on plastic bags, America would quickly move into the post-plastic-bag-era, which will benefit our nation both economically and environmentally.
It may seem pretty hard “to let go” of plastic bags, but there are sufficient alternatives to their use in transporting our groceries from the store to our cars and homes. Canvas bags, for instance, would fix the bag-less problem. Canvas bags are also way more durable then the outdated plastic bag. There is a huge upside of using canvas bags; you do not have to double or even triple bag them in order to carry heavier things like you have to do when using plastic bags. The typical canvas bags use 14 times less energy than plastic bags based on the canvas bag making 500 trips. The average life span of canvas bags is around a year and a half (Coleman n.p.). By making the choice to use a canvas bag as opposed to the plastic bag will certainly help our nation to move in the right direction.
The tax on plastic bags in Dublin is 33 cents. Within weeks of the tax plastic bag use actually dropped 94 percent (Rosenthal 2). A mere 33 cents caused such change; who could possibly be in opposition to this tax?
Not only will taxing plastic bags significantly reduce the enormous volume in our landfills and litter, but it will also save millions of barrels of oil. Even the greatest polluter on the planet, Red China, has gone green. China has gone to the extreme and banned plastic bags altogether. With this ban, they are going to be saving 37 million barrels of crude oil each year (Daily Green1). Thirty-seven million barrels of crude oil transported nearly across the world translates to huge amount of money. What our nation would be gaining economically if it reduced its use of plastic bags would be enormous.
According to Stephanie Barger – executive director of Earth Resource Foundation in Costa Mesa, California, “Every time we use a new plastic bag they go and get more petroleum from the Middle East and bring over in tankers. We are extracting and destroying the Earth to use a plastic bag for 10 minutes.” Is it really necessary to continue to damage our Earth - our home - further just to use a flimsy plastic bag that normally rips and breaks with only just a little weight? I think not.
In January of this year, almost 42 billion plastic bags were used worldwide; the figure increases by more than half a million bags every minute (Rosenthal 1). This must end and it will end. By publicizing the economic and environmental benefits that go hand-in-hand with the reduction of the use of plastic bags, Americans will certainly agree. Some states in our nation are already moving towards the light; they are moving towards the post-plastic-bag era. San Francisco was the first city in America to ban plastic bags.
The enactment of the innovative legislation in San Francisco shows us it is possible! I’m not suggesting that we should ban plastic bags; however, with a simple tax using the model from Dublin we can work towards a significant reduction in the use of plastic bags in America.
I support this tax. My future children will benefit from this tax. My children’s children will benefit from this tax. Our posterity will benefit from this tax. Let’s move into the post-plastic-bag-era as a nation.
