17.12 Making Connections

IS IT TIME TO SKIP THE UBIQUITOUS PLASTIC BAG?

Background: Canadians use approximately 12 billion plastic bags a year. After their short use, these bags often end up as litter and many eventually make it to the ocean. Concerns over the impacts of plastic bags on marine wildlife have led to a movement to restrict or ban plastic bags. Ireland and China have instituted fees on single-use plastic bags, and in January 2011, Italy became the first country to implement a nationwide ban on them. In the United States, plastic bag use in the city of San Francisco has dropped by 5 million per month since it instituted a ban on plastic bags in March 2007. Toronto imposed a plastic bag fee in 2009 but later eliminated it and briefly considered a ban, first passing and then reversing the ban in 2012.

Case: Your community is considering some sort of restriction on plastic bags. You have been assigned the task of evaluating alternative strategies to reduce plastic bag pollution, including:

• implementing an outright ban on single-use plastic bags.
• instituting a fee for consumers to use plastic bags. The fee would be used for waste education and litter clean-up efforts.
• establishing a reusable bag credit for consumers. This credit would be paid by the businesses, as it would save them having to purchase plastic bags.

Research these (and possibly other) options and write a report recommending a course of action for your community.

1. In your report, include the following:
   1. an analysis of the pros and cons of each proposal.
   2. a discussion of the consequences of each choice from economic, ecological, and convenience/practical perspectives.
   3. a reflection on the values underlying each proposal.
2. Based on the information at hand, what is the best option for your community? Who should be involved in this decision? Provide justifications for your proposal.
3. From what you now know about the consequences of plastic pollution and the challenges of managing plastic waste, develop a set of guiding principles that could be applied to addressing the issue of plastic packaging. Discuss the principles you develop and explain why you consider them to be key to the future of reducing and managing plastic waste.