The only newsroom focused on exploring solutions at the intersection of climate and justice. Cracker plants release air pollutants such as benzene which is linked to cancer and childhood leukemia, toluene which is linked to birth defects and brain, liver, and kidney problems, formaldehyde which is a known carcinogen, and particulate matter which is linked to cardiovascular and respiratory disease and lung and bladder cancer. High costs for cleanup 8. It honestly sounds like a superhero, doesnt it? ETHAN: The Sweaty Penguin is presented by Peril and Promise: a public media initiative from The WNET Group in New York, reporting on the issues and solutions around climate change. With a referendum in November 2016, California became the first state to ban single-use plastic bags, according to the National Conference on State Legislatures, which keeps an active list of American laws. Or, another idea, what if plastic could be made directly from carbon dioxide that we suck from the atmosphere? As part of our commitment to sustainability, in 2021 Grist moved its office headquarters to the Bullitt Center in Seattles vibrant Capitol Hill neighborhood. Donate today tohelp keep Grists site and newsletters free. Thats right, its always the one you most suspect. The ideal city bag policy would probably involve charging for paper and plastic single-use bags, as New York City has decided to do, while giving out reusable recycled-plastic bags to those who need them, especially to low-income communities and seniors. In all fairness, every material has a climate impact, and high-density polyethylene is not that bad if you stack its carbon footprint against other materials or even other plastics. And all of these materials do better? So I often tell people, if theyre choosing a bag, you want to choose a bag that you are going to reuse that could be a thin bag, then plastic bag, or it could be a nylon bag, which is technically still plastic, but is a woven plastic thats fairly lightweight, and thus, perhaps not going to have the same environmental impact as a heavier plastic or a cloth bag. The Permian Basin Hosts the Highest Emitting Oil and Gas Project in North America. Amid fracking boom, Pennsylvania faces toxic wastewater reckoning. YouTube, Follow us on As compared to plastic bags, paper bags also require significantly more energy and water to manufacture, and more energy to transport since theyre heavier. Paper bags do have some pros over plastic theyre biodegradable, recyclable, compostable, reusable, all the fun -ables. Of those 48, 16 had publicly available air pollution data, so I took a look at that group. Bag bans seem to be all the rage, but its not the only option. The measure now under consideration in Massachusetts, for example, would mandate that single-use paper bags contain at least 40 percent recycled fiber. One of the most comprehensive research papers on the environmental impact of bags, published in 2007 by anAustralian state government agency, found that paper bags have a higher carbon footprint than plastic. Okay, maybe Im going overboard, but honestly, if it were a small ordeal to get a single-use bag, I could see the inconvenience of that motivating people to bring their reusable bags to the store a whole lot more than a five or ten cent tax. So the unintended consequences. READ MORE. How bad was Tucker Carlson for the planet. And I think thats the topic I dont know enough about. Shortly after, the Massachusetts State Senate passed a measure that would ban plastic bags from being dispensed by many retail businesses and require acharge of 10 cents or more for a recycled paper or reusable bag. Heres just one tiny example: Does the paper for paper bags come from a recycled paper mill on Staten Island or a virgin forest in northern Canada? The Massachusetts proposal may not become law this year, but it's the latest sign that the plastic bag industry is losing this war. In 2018 though, 68.1 percent of paper consumed in the United States was recovered for recycling, which is a really impressive number, although its worth noting that paper fibers become weaker each time theyre recycled, so there are still limitations to that. So some of my recent research was looking at to what extent do we actually see border shopping occur? Take two minutes, help out the show, and get a shoutout at the end of the show by leaving a five star rating and a review on Apple or Podcast Addict OR join our Patreon at patreon.com/thesweatypenguin. ETHAN: After we drill and frack and insert other PG13 sounding term here, we have to actually turn our fossil fuels into polyethylene. It may not be big enough. Lets start with paper: the only kind of bag that is, in the most literal tense, tearible. Scientists believe lasting symptoms following a coronavirus infection is not a single disorder. TAYLOR: So an interesting thing with local policies, and theres a lot of debate about whether policies like these should be implemented at the state level or at the local level. I asked Dr. Taylor how we can account for the cost of alternatives when we create policies to address plastic bags. What I found was a net benefit, we were still reducing more plastic than this rebound effect. In Staten Island, perhaps? Our best hope the next time Earth is in the crosshairs? But that carbon footprint could also very easily be lower, which is why I bring it up. Eat one less meat dish a weekthats what will have a real impact on the environment, says Tyler. Electrify everything, California says including trucks and trains. Spoiler alert: plastics parents got divorced at age eleven and it still isnt over it. In addition to being my celebrity couple name with a girl named Polly, polyethylene is a string of carbon and hydrogen atoms. Nakuru, Kenya In the open-air Wakulima Market thin plastic shopping bags have disappeared, banished by Kenya's national bag ban. Its been more than five years since single-use plastic bags like these were banned from grocery stores, a ban advocates say made strides for the environment. Two weeks ago, the Massachusetts State Senate passed a measure that would ban plastic bags from being dispensed by many retail businesses and require a charge of 10 cents or more for a recycled paper or reusable bag. And so this is a really tense issue around. All three counties are majority minority, the first two are over a third low income, and according to data from Texas Rising, if you rank all 254 counties in Texas for the overall environmental and social burdens they face, these three counties come in at #3, #8, and #53. So have at least 88 localities in California, including the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco, plus cities and towns in more than a dozen other states and more than a dozen other countries. Microplastics can be ingested by anyone from seabirds to fish to even humans through our food and water, and can cause health issues, reduce appetites, and even increase the risk of mortality. So if you have a policy in your own city, but the next city over doesnt, and you decide to shop in then next city over to avoid the policy. WIRED is where tomorrow is realized. Every time you need to process a new batch of polyethylene, you bring it to the facility and say, Polly want a cracker?. Fees have a smaller, but still significant, effect. First off, this sort of tax does hit low income communities the hardest, since they spend a larger percentage of their monthly income on food. There are so very many variables. You can learn more at pbs.org/perilandpromise. And sort of the bottom line, what I found with in terms of like the amount of plastic, was about a third of the plastic that was eliminated by the carry out bag ban came back in the form of garbage bags, which do tend to be a bit thicker than the carry out bags. New York's ban will take effect in 2020 but will apply to single-use plastic bags you can get at grocery stores or retailers. YouTube. And so whats really interesting is just adding a small price to each, each bag, you know, five cents, we see really large behavioral changes just with that small price. Special thanks to our Emperor Penguin patrons Lawrence Harris and Brownies Central. But it turns out that charging people to use bags is not the same as paying them to bring reusable bags. 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 . If they dont get reused a certain amount of time. Phytoplankton: How Too Much of a Good Thing Causes Problems. Im really proud of this one and I hope you enjoy it! . Facebook, Follow us on Waste in particular, plastic packaging, how it is used, how it gets discarded. Solar and wind companies are coming to rural Texas. If youre singularly focused on eliminating plastic bags, theres a level of convenience from a policymaker standpoint thats tempting. In fact, we can take it a step further. [booo] Yeah, that was even rough for my standards. When we got rid of the carry out bags, people had to start purchasing garbage bags. Then Christmas is for you. And so this was an unintended consequence of the policy. Now, there are a few challenges to implementing a monetary policy like this. And those seven ethylene projects are concentrated in just three counties in Texas: Harris County, Jefferson County, and Brazoria County. The first time you say your dog ate it, its a funny story, but by the fifth time, youre definitely going to fail first grade. I mean, look at all the kids roaming the streets looking for water after eating a single Saltine. PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. After the break, well discuss where bag bans have shown shortcomings, the pros and cons of other types of grocery bags, and some other solution ideas that havent gained the same level of popularity as Dijon-crusted plastic. Recently, many politicians were in such a hurry to ban plastic bags. So is there anything you would suggest to policymakers as they tried to address the issue? And to be fair, it is an issue. Even if bags arent the worst offender though, theyre a very hot topic and in my opinion, a really really interesting and misunderstood one, so Im very excited to talk about it today. The Australian study concluded that the best option appears to be a reusable bag, but one made from recycled plastic, not cotton. Well discuss the extent to which plastic bags are a problem, some of the shortcomings of the trendier solutions, and some other less commonly discussed ideas for how to most sustainably and effectively move forward. Twitter, Follow us on Others, like in New York City, treat all single-use bags equally. AD READER: Is it 12:01am on November 1st? Two weeks ago, the Massachusetts State Senate passed a measure that would ban plastic bags from being dispensed by many retail businesses and require a charge of 10 cents or more for a recycled paper or reusable bag. Proposition 67, also known as SB270, officially passed in November 2016, prohibits plastic bags . CLIP: Its been more than five years since single-use plastic bags like these were banned from grocery stores, a ban advocates say made strides for the environment. The shift from one single-use bag to another single-use bag may improve one environmental outcome, but be offset by another environmental impact.. Cracker? I collected data from supermarkets, on the types of bags people were using at checkout, both before and after the policy went into effect. In 2018 though, 68.1 percent of paper consumed in the United States was recovered for recycling, which is a really impressive number, although its worth noting that paper fibers become weaker each time theyre recycled, so there are still limitations to that. Then, that ethylene can be sent to a new plant where theyll add a catalyst which initiates a chemical reaction and forms our high-density polyethylene. If a plastic bag is reused in the home as the garbage bag in a bathroom waste bin, does that reduce its footprint by eliminating the need for another small plastic garbage bag? Doing either earns you a special shoutout at the end of the show; joining the Patreon gets you merch, bonus content, and a whole lot more. The U.S. is the number two producer of polyethylene in the world behind China, and in the U.S., 80 percent of our primary petrochemical supply is in Texas and Louisiana. First, we transport our fossil fuels to a type of petrochemical plant called a cracker. Cracker? Yeet that wheat. TAYLOR: Yeah, I think one thing that stands out, when we think about plastic bags, and when we think about sort of packaging, in general, is that theres this perception that its free, that theres no price, and that you can you know, youre not paying for the plastic bags that you use, thats not actually true, you actually do pay for the plastic bags that you use at the supermarket. Reader support helps sustain our work. We use. Try Christmas now! [string music, inspired by What We Do In The Shadows]. And so many of these supermarkets have actually rolled back their policies. A single mom, or someone working two jobs, is more likely to have to do her shopping in a rush on the way home from work than to go out specifically with a tote bag in hand. Over Half of the Worlds Penguin Species Are Threatened, A New Natural Gas Project in Mozambique Gives Locals All of the Costs and None of the Benefits. But not just anywhere. Multi-use plastic bags are catching on slower than their cloth counterparts. And so because of that bands have been more popular. As far as I know, nobody has done the definitive analysis, which would necessarily need to have a large number of caveats and qualifications. It is the essential source of information and ideas that make sense of a world in constant transformation. These residents are trying to keep them out. That way youre reducing the amount of material thats going into the product, but you still want it to be something that youll actually find convenient and reuse with you. Paper bags do have some pros over plastic theyre biodegradable, recyclable, compostable, reusable, all the fun -ables. All that said, paper is made from trees, meaning paper bags contribute to deforestation. Not So Fast Advocates for plastic bag bans often neglect to ask what will replace plastic bags and what the environmental impact of that replacement will be. If they were going to use a slur for white people, why not name it Karen or Wonderbread? LASZLO: Oh, alright, if itll shut you up. Often, the problem shifts. Physicists Rewrite a Quantum Rule That Clashes With Our Universe. According to the Ocean Conservancys 2020 Coastal Cleanup Report, plastic grocery bags ranked number 6 for trash in the ocean. ETHAN: Today we are talking about bags: a word that simultaneously means a container with an open top used for carrying things, a lot of money, and any goal youve ever had in your life. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions or views of Peril and Promise or The WNET Group. In all seriousness, theres drawbacks here too. ITS PAPER. Paper does have its own environmental consequences in terms of how much energy it takes to generate, acknowledges Emily Norton, director of the Massachusetts Sierra Club. Its right up there with Taylor Swifts jet, Beyond Burgers, and figuring out which soup is best for throwing at artwork. Like, get a life, man. ETHAN: Its true. This really needs to be top priority. Any time someone needs bags, make a trip to the back to get them and have them wait. Climate change, they say, isnt the only form of environmental degradation to worry about. Course Hero, a tutoring business last valued by investors at $3.6 billion, has cut 15% of staff, or 42 people its first round of layoffs . Before I jump in, were trying out a little bit of a different format today. If a plastic bag is reused in the home as the garbage bag in a bathroom waste bin, does that reduce its footprint by eliminating the need for another small plastic garbage bag? Never mind, that was underwhelming. ETHAN: Like, come on, we dont need more toxic chemicals in one spot! In the case of using a tax, the government is also then able to raise some money, which can be used to either lower taxes elsewhere or go toward environmental cleanup efforts or most importantly, turning Niagara Falls into a waterslide. We use [drumroll] oil and gas! And so I think, and subsidies can be quite expensive for governments to run or source to run. Was Implementation the Right Theme for COP27? And as you mentioned, tote bags can be actually more harmful. How many plastic bags are replaced by one cotton tote bag? In a queer vacation hot spot on Cape Cod, an ad hoc community proved that Americans can stifle large outbreaksif they want to. Thats primarily because more energy is required to produce and transport paper bags. I mean, throw some Dijon on there and youve got lunch! Twitter, Follow us on Listen Up America: You Need to Learn How to Recycle. Any time someone needs bags, make a trip to the back to get them and have them wait. Again, because this is what I tell people all the time. All rights reserved. As longtime plastic bag adversary Ian Frazier recently reported in The New Yorker, In 2014, plastic grocery bags were the seventh most common item collected during the Ocean Conservancys International Coastal Cleanup, behind smaller debris such as cigarette butts, plastic straws, and bottle caps. The New York City Sanitation Department collects more than 1,700 tons of single-use carry-out bags every week, and has to spend $12.5 million a year to dispose of them. Throwing This Out Here: Plastic Bags Are Amazing and You Should Appreciate Them More, Trash Is Ugly, But Recycling Is Downright Beautiful. In fact, every region of the U.S. has a different energy mix. Because of that, the climate impact of a cotton tote is 131 times that of a plastic bag, and its overall environmental impact is thousands of times worse. And so its the sort of carrots versus sticks story, the sticks of the taxes seem to be much more effective than the carrots of the bonuses. Very broadly, carbon footprints are proportional to mass of an object, says Tyler. Made from fossil fuels 3. Anyway, at a cracker plant, they use extreme heat to crack the molecular bonds in the oil or gas to produce a new gas called ethylene. No, of course not. Put all that together, and National Geographic estimates that a paper bag would need to be used anywhere from 3 to 43 times in order to neutralize its environmental impact as compared to plastic. How many plastic bags are replaced by one cotton tote bag? by John Stossel | May 5, 2020. LASZLO: Am I? 2- From a retailer's perspective, the thin plastic bags are the most economical of all. Does it get recycled? Banning plastic bags is great for the world, right? Produce sellers in this busy agricultural hub 95 miles. A lovely tote made from single use plastic bags. Plastic Bags Take Up To 1,000 Years to Decompose. In a rational model. Not So Fast Like cigarettes, plastic bags have recently gone from a tolerated nuisance to a widely despised and discouraged vice. That's why any good plastic bag ban attempts to avoid a surge in paper bag use by also implementing a paper bag fee, ideally nudging shoppers to bring bags from home instead. The U.S. is the number two producer of polyethylene in the world behind China, and in the U.S., 80 percent of our primary petrochemical supply is in Texas and Louisiana. ETHAN: Hopefully ethylene makes its What We Do In The Shadows debut in season five. Youre being ridiculous. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy. Its vital reporting made entirely possible by loyal readers like you. But what if reusable bags arent good either? Last month, the New York City Council passed a 5-cent-per-bag fee on single-use bags handed out by most retailers. How do you tackle microplastics? We talked about a whole list of issues in our first segment, and those dont vanish. As the Australian study noted, a cotton bag has major environmental impacts of its own. I hope at least one of those cracked you up. Once ethylene is turned into plastic, its not harmful, youre not going to get a disease just by touching a plastic bag, unless its March 2020 when every cashier in America was convinced thats how Covid spreads. Thicker, reusable bags are still available for purchase for 10 cents. Some bills, like in Massachusetts, try to reduce the use of paper bags as well as plastic, but still favor paper. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); A nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. How do we do that? There are many factors to consider when looking at the environmental impact of plastic bags, and also paper bags may not be as environmentally friendly as people think. In fact, it may not even be the most effective option. You can learn more at pbs.org/perilandpromise. Others, like in New York City, treat all single-use bags equally. And behavioral economics really explores a lot of that. Not So Fast" by Ben Adler focuses on the states attempting to end giving out plastic bags for free hoping to reduce plastic waste. Whether its paper, whether its plastic, can we reuse it, you know, extend its life? AD READER: This episode of The Sweaty Penguin is brought to you by Christmas. And so in terms of ranking those, that would be my order, taxes, hybrid bands, and then least preferred standalone bands. How do we do that? 500 billion plastic grocery bags are used worldwide. In fact, eight states have gone so far as to ban single-use plastic bags, and over 200 counties and municipalities have enacted ordinances either imposing a fee on plastic bags or. ETHAN: So just to wrap up this point, would you say that its a net positive or negative? And beyond that, ethylene itself is a dangerous pollutant. Thats leading to a split in the anti-bag movement. The Massachusetts proposal may not become law this year, but it's the latest sign that the plastic bag industry is losing this war. 12:48 PM PDT March 16, 2023. The Bad Astronomer Takes You on a Tour of the Cosmos. For more than 250 years, mathematicians have wondered if the Euler equations might sometimes fail to describe a fluids flow. Not easy to recycle 7. Not So Fast." Still, many environmentalists argue that plastic is worse than paper. Right now! Have a listen. Im your host, Ethan Brown. Obtain that grain. This episode of The Sweaty Penguin explores a wide range of issues including plastic bag manufacturing and looks at the shortcomings of some proposed solutions. The measure now under consideration in Massachusetts, for example, would mandate that single-use paper bags contain at least 40 percent recycled fiber. However, it cannot be argued that they are the only components that contribute to Earth's many environmental problems. A substantial shift to more durable bags would deliver environmental gains through reductions in greenhouse gases, energy and water use, resource depletion and litter, the study concluded. Or do state governments get to say, when local governments do implement the policies, theres a concern that it causes a patchwork of policies that might harm businesses, confused customers. Single-use plastics seem to be disappearing. And now theyre using a thicker product with more packaging. For example, I talked in our plastic straws episode about something called default choice modification. Only 2.4 percent of the worlds cropland is planted with cotton, yet it accounts for 24 percent of the global market for insecticides and 11 percent for pesticides, the World Wildlife Fund reports. Microsoft quietly supported legislation to make it easier to fix devices. Its what we put in the bag at the grocery store that really matters., 2023 Cond Nast. Banning Plastic Bags Is Great for the World, Right? Aw, dammit, I was so close! NADJA: After much deliberation, Nandor and I have invited a new resident into the house. Thats right, its always the one you most suspect. Oil and natural gas are also made of carbon and hydrogen, so in addition to using them for energy, we process them into plastic. And the question that I had was, how does banning this plastic carry out bag affect the use of other types of plastic bags, and in particular, garbage bags, because as a consumer myself, I knew that I reused many of my carry out grocery bags as garbage bags. So if its not effective, and its expensive, its not a recommended policy tool. What she finds is actually leave the bag bonuses really dont have an effect. Not only are there these human health concerns, but crackers and other petrochemical facilities are not located very fairly. [wrong buzz] Aw, dammit, I was so close! Two weeks ago, the Massachusetts State Senate passed a measure that would ban plastic bags from being dispensed by many retail businesses and require a charge of 10 cents or more for a. California became the first to introduce regulations banning single-use plastic bags in August 2014. Choking the oceans with Plastics. ETHAN: Seven of those 16 projects were related to ethylene or polyethylene, including the five highest polluters of the group. And just like that, a step towards zero waste is taken, and it feels good. Now theres a breakthrough. Increasingly, environmentalists are pushing for laws that include fees for all single-use bags, and that require paper bags to be made with recycled content, which could lower their carbon footprint. Now, for various reasons, political reasons, taxes are often not favored by politicians, because people dont like the word tax. Its taken long enough. But for UPROSE, that concern is outweighed by the negative impacts of plastic bags on disadvantaged communities. Banning Plastic Bags Is Great for the World, Right? With respect to the bonuses we talked about. I also mistake plastic bags for food sometimes, and let me tell you, Walmart makes a delicious tall kitchen. As such, many people suggest accompanying measures to distribute free reusable bags, and the tax could even be used to raise the money to make that happen. "Banning Plastic Bags Is Great For The World, Right? But University of Sydneys Dr. Rebecca Taylor says not so fast. Facebook, Follow us on Its not easy being a green consumer, in part because there are these different dimensions of environmental impact. How Do We Protect Avocados From Drought, Deforestation, and Drug Cartels? A lot of the waste ends up in our communities, says Elizabeth Yeampierre, executive director of UPROSE, an environmental and social justice-oriented community organization in Brooklyn. California and Hawaii banned them, then New York. People look at [paper] and say its degradable, therefore its much better for the environment, but its not in terms of climate change impact, says David Tyler, a professor of chemistry at the University of Oregon who has examined the research on the environmental impact of bag use. The shift from one single-use bag to another single-use bag may improve one environmental outcome, but be offset by another environmental impact.. [booo] Oil and natural gas are also made of carbon and hydrogen, so in addition to using them for energy, we process them into plastic. They are a lot easier to carry than many other shopping bags out there. Thats like opening a Papa Johns right next to a Little Caesars. They were reusing their carry out bags as garbage bags. Not So Fast. So paper and plastic as litter paper, you know, decomposes, it breaks down, its not as harmful to the environment, if it if its litter. Washington, D.C.s government estimates that its 5-cent bag tax has led to a 60 percent reduction in the number of these bags being used, although that figure is contested by other sources. There are eight states that ban single-use plastic bags, and these are Oregon, Vermont, California, Hawaii, Delaware, New York, Maine, and Connecticut. Instagram, Follow us on A Canadian Gas Field Is Polluting First Nation Communities, How Climate Change, Poverty, and Social Stigma Affect Menstrual Hygiene. And so my recommendation is to use as few bags as you can reuse the ones that you do purchase and purchase your bags, make it an active decision. They increase their sales by almost 120%. One reason plastic bags should be banned is that they hurt the environment. Cities and states across the country are banning plastic bags, but those bans may be having unintended consequences. Of those 48, 16 had publicly available air pollution data, so I took a look at that group. Come on, why have we not tried this yet? Fees have a smaller, but still significant, effect. Maybe call the manager over or fly the CEO in on a helicopter or pull the fire alarm so everyone starts screaming and running. Have a listen. You can learn more at pbs.org/perilandpromise. Remember when I said petrochemical facilities use natural gas for electricity? 1- Out of all the bags that are currently available in the market, plastic bags are the most convenient for consumers. As the Australian study noted, a cotton bag has major environmental impacts of its own. The past and future are tightly linked in conventional quantum mechanics. I mean, I know it loves to hang at the cracker plants and all but wouldnt it have more fun hanging out with other creatures of the night? But sales of garbage bags increased substantially and especially those small garbage bags that you know, are around the same size as the carryout back. If your chief concern is climate change, things get even muddier. The big difference is that paper does biodegrade eventually. Now, a new law hopes to take things a step further by banning these: single-use plastic pre-checkout bags that are not recyclable and can contaminate compost facilities. And so when we think about these policies, were balancing these different environmental objectives. In other words, rather than emitting carbon, they would take carbon out of the atmosphere.
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