Please Repeal Plastic Bags Ban in Austin

Beginning March 1^st the law of banning the single use plastic bag went into effect in Austin city limit and since then it made a measurable impact on our daily lives. I can’t see any logical point to this law and I completely disagree to it. As in my last blog, I commented against plastic bags ban and in this blog I want to make more points to justify my position against this ridiculous law.

Most of the proponents of plastic bags ban make a lot of statements against plastic bags which are not always true. Plastic bags are more environment friendly than one would think. Plastic bags require 70% less energy to manufacture than paper bags and produce half the amount of greenhouse gas emission in the process. One of the unsubstantiated statements of the proponents is “plastic is killing our oceans”. But there is no evidence to the statement. Also, banning plastic bags can not reduce the amount of plastic waste. A study conducted in 2008 found that that there was a slight increase of plastic waste after plastic bags were banned in 2007 in San Francisco. The city’s data showed that plastic bags amounted to just 0.64% of all lager waste and only 0.5% of all solid waste.

Also proponents say that in order to make plastic bags we are wasting our oil, making us more dependent on foreign oil. But the truth is plastic bags are the byproducts of NATURAL GAS, not OIL! So there is no connection that by banning plastic bags we would be less dependent on foreign oil.

Another argument against plastic bags is that “plastic bags are single use”. But 92% people say that they reuse plastic bags around the house for things like lining waste basket, keeping storage, toting dirty clothes or picking up after pets. If “single use” is the criteria to ban things, then why not ban all paper towels, diapers, toilet paper, and disposable plates and cups that cannot be recycled and take years to dispose?

In addition, reusable bags are unsanitary and can spread germs since most people do not wash the reusable bags. After San Francisco banned plastic bags in 2007, they found illnesses of food related bacteria increased substantially. A study by Jonathan Klick and Joshua Wright showed that food-borne illnesses in San Francisco increased 46% leading to 5.4 annual additional deaths after bag ban was put into effect. In this scenario, supporters suggest that we should wash reusable bags more often, but they forget the fact that washing reusable bags also undermines the environment. Washing reusable bags requires electricity and water, and it also emits polluted water to the environment.

Overall, banning plastic bags in Austin is a ridiculous idea. In my opinion, rather than banning plastic bags Austin City Council should put more efforts in recycling plastic bags. In Texas, there is no real effort or investment in recycling plastic bags despite the fact that it takes less energy to recycle plastic bags. Study shows that it takes 91% less energy to recycle a pound of plastic than it does to recycle a pound of paper. Thus, the plastic bags ban in Austin should be repealed.