Plastic Bag Ban

Plastic Bags Banned

by Mariah Lumsden

Oregon State lawmakers have recently banned single-use plastic bags at grocery stores, restaurants and retail stores on January 1st, 2020. The bill allows for companies to provide reusable or recyclable bags for a fee of 5 cents. Single-use plastic bags will soon become a myth.

As many have come to terms with, plastic bags are a nuisance. According to a democratic senator from Portland, Oregon, Michael Dembrow, “Plastic bags are difficult to recycle and light enough to be blown around easily.” Because of the fact that they are more often seen floating around like ghosts in the wind and often only used once, it is no wonder that they are finding their way into the ocean to pollute it. Dembrow says, “They don’t biodegrade, and so the only way to rid ourselves of them is to stop using them.” He then went on to make a point that, “something we use once shouldn’t be able to pollute our environment for hundreds of years.” Dembrow provokes many excellent points because if we continue to take advantage of plastic bags and shove them into trash cans just for them to travel into the ocean and invade a plethora of sea creature’s homes, eventually we are going to have many unpleasant problems. Some of these problems we are already beginning to see.

Although some may argue that single-use plastic bags should not be classified as single-use because they can be used more than once, they cannot argue that the bags will not eventually be thrown out. Plastic bags can only be reused until they start becoming weathered down. They tear and they rip, and they can only hold so much. Republican senators, who disagreed with the ban, Dennis Linthicum and Kim Thatcher said, “They call these reusable bags ‘single-use’ but they are not. Simply, the bill is not rooted in reality, it is not going to help the environment.” However, Ireland reduced plastic bag consumption by 90%, which is over 1 billion bags according to Reuse This Bag. Ireland also just happens to be one of the greenest countries in the world; a correlation is suspected. To say that reducing the amount of plastic bags used will not help the environment is simply incorrect and an ignorant thing to suggest.

Some may be wondering if it is all types of plastic being banned. Not to worry, we will still be infecting our oceans with plastic bags used for produce, bulk foods, or meat. Stores may also continue to sell plastic such as kitchen garbage bags, for instance. Oregon’s hope is to encourage the switch to reusable or recyclable bags in order to reduce the amount of single-use plastic consumed. Oregon is also concerned about local marine life as, plastic bags that are used and then thrown out end up in recycling bins which can then contaminate the recycling stream and endanger the safety of workers and marine life. Workers must untangle them in order to remove the plastic bags from the recycling equipment. Other types of plastics that will be exempt from the ban are bags for pet waste, garbage, or food storage.

It is the end of an era: single-use plastic bags. No longer will someone stumble into a store, hoping to buy a carton of eggs or a jug of milk and be able to store those items in a plastic bag for safe transportation. It is safe to say that plastic bags hold a title on the endangered species list, right next to all of the creatures it itself has endangered.