“Paper or plastic?” asks a grocery clerk in Des Moines. You no longer hear that question in some other cities, including San Francisco. In 2007, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors banned grocery stores from using plastic bags. Groceries are now put in paper bags or reusable bags that customers bring from home. Since then, several other cities around the world have phased out the distribution of plastic bags by banning their use. But some cities have no plans to phase out plastic bags. In fact, as of 2020, eight states have banned laws that ban plastic bags!

Supporters say banning plastic bags is a good strategy. They cite research that says plastic bags are bad for the environment. Our country uses over 100 billion plastic bags per year, and the bags are piling up in landfills. Most plastic is not biodegradable, and plastic bags will stay in the landfills for hundreds of years. Plastic bags also litter the streets. Some drift out to sea and kill turtles and other sea creatures. Plastic bags are made from petroleum, or oil, a costly, non-renewable resource. People who support the ban say that our earth is being polluted, and its resources are being wasted. These people argue that we need government intervention to protect the earth and its resources.

Opponents state that city governments should not be allowed to ban plastic bags because it is a matter of private business and individual freedom. Since businesses pay for the bags, not taxpayers, they believe it should be up to each business to decide what bags they provide their customers. Some businesses argue that customers need bags in order to shop in a store, so people should always have the option of disposable bags. They say it’s not fair for cities to regulate use of plastic or paper bags, since customers may not always have reusable bags with them.

Some store owners also point out that there are other ways to help the environment. For instance, cities can set up recycling bins for plastic bags and provide incentives for people to reuse bags or bring their own reusable bags.

Washington, D.C. tried an alternative strategy for reducing the use of plastic bags. The city government added a five cent fee on all disposable bags, both paper and plastic. Their goal was to encourage people to bring their own reusable bags and to reduce the trash in the nearby Anacostia River. Before the bag fee, almost half of the trash in the river was plastic bags. Since the bag fee began, the number of plastic bags found in the river has decreased by 75 percent. However, some people argue that a fee is not enough and that it would be better to ban plastic bags completely. Others believe using paper instead of plastic would significantly help the environment, but the data suggest that disposable paper bags may not be better than plastic. After all, we chop down trees to make paper bags. In addition, paper bags weigh more than plastic bags, so it takes more energy to transport them from factories to stores. They are also not as strong as plastic, so we use more of them.

What is your opinion? Should city governments ban plastic bags, or should the individual stores decide?