To the Editor,
It is with great interest I have followed the discussion about a ban on single-use plastic bags in Culver City. To decrease the usage of plastic made from petroleum is a good thing, but to ban plastic bags is more of a symbolic action promoted by professional agitators with large green hearts than something that will have any serious environmental impact. Rather, the city of Culver City now has an opportunity to choose an environmental, smart and sustainable solution and be an environmental leader instead of a city of no. Plastic bags are practical and versatile, which is why most of us use them.
The discussion has centered on litter issues and the environmental impact of green house gases (GHG). Let’s start the green house gas issue. When substituting a plastic bag with a paper bag, the life cycle emission of GHG is increased at least threefold (according to United Kingdom EPA and other studies). San Francisco’s ban on plastic bags has actually increased the GHG emission two to two-and-a-half times through the use of paper bags instead. One reason is the extra traffic that it generates. The paper bag is heavier and takes more space so you need about seven trucks instead of one to transport the same amount of paper bags as plastic bags. So the paper bag is definitely not an improvement with regards to climate change and traffic, rather the opposite.
The same British EPA study shows that if one uses a cotton canvas bag, one needs to use it 130 times in order not to generate more GHG emission than the single-use plastic bags. If, like me, one also uses half of the single-use plastic bags as a trash liner, the cotton canvas bag has to be used more than 170 times to keep from generating more GHG emissions.
Clearly the single-use plastic bag is the best alternative from a climate change perspective. In the United States, it is even better because most of our plastic bags are not made from petroleum/oil. Instead they are made from a gas component of natural gas that has to be filtered out before the natural gas can be distributed to us for cooking, heating, etc.
To cut down or eliminate the litter, we should do a couple of things, but first we have to realize that of the plastic that ends up in the ocean, on average only 1% to 2% is from the single-use plastic bags. This is from a multitude of different studies, however one study has estimated 5%. We should also note the fact that the plastic bags that end up in landfills (which a majority of them shouldn’t, but rather be recycled) actually function as a form of carbon sequestration.
Still, it would be great to eliminate the litter as much as possible. The first thing we should do is have stores charge at least 10 cents each for plastic and paper bags. When Washington D.C. started to charge for bags, the use of plastic bags decreased between 60% and 70% within the first year. The money collected by stores in Culver City for the bags could, for example, go to a local environmental fund to support the clean-up and improvements of Ballona Creek.
We should also require the stores to phase out the single-use bags and start providing multiple-use plastic bags, which will further decrease the number of plastic bags consumed, and at the same time would make for even better trash liners. This type of plastic bag is used successfully in many other countries.
Of course, what we should do if we really want to be environmental leaders instead of a city of no is to require that our stores phase in the use of multiple-use plastic bags made from agricultural waste. These are real renewable plastic bags that can be recycled as normal plastic and are available today. A supermarket chain in Sweden introduced this type of bag in January and Pepsi just recently announced a type of soda bottle made the same way.
We also need to acknowledge that it all comes down to you and me – to our individual responsibility for our environment. We have to take responsibility to avoid littering, to teach our children (and grown-ups) to recycle and throw trash in trash bins, etc. We should create a Keep Culver City Clean campaign.
I hope we all will take a more comprehensive look at the issue of single-use plastic bags rather than just saying “no” and, instead, grab the opportunity to be environmental leaders and move our great city to the forefront of educated environmental enlightment.
Göran Eriksson
Culver City