These States Are Plastic Bag Free and Here’s Why the Rest of America Needs to Follow

Single-use plastic bags are destructive for the environment, wasteful, and completely unnecessary. On average, Americans use 100 billion plastic bags annually. Nearly 12 million barrels of oil is spent every year to make plastic bags. A typical American family uses about 1500 bags a year and with less than 1% of bags are ever returned for recycling, up to 80% of plastic bag waste makes its way to the ocean killing up to 100,000 marine life per year.

Considering the average single-use plastic bag is used for 12 minutes, but takes more than 500 years to fully degrade in a landfill, the convenience hardly justifies the consequences. Luckily we’re not the only one out to save wildlife and make our planet more eco friendly by reducing one-time use plastic waste. The banning or restriction of single-use plastic bags have been adopted globally by many countries already including Kenya, Uganda, Australia, England, Morocco, China, Italy, Scotland, Wales, Germany, and many parts of North America. In the United States, several states have already banned plastic bags.

 

Plastic-free states

On August 2014, California became the first state to pass legislation to ban plastic bags in the entire state. And since then other states have followed. Below are the notable states that have enacted either some restrictions on single-use plastic bags or a complete ban:

1. California
2. Arizona
3. Delaware
4. Idaho
5. Illinois
6. Maine
7. Mississippi
8. Missouri
9. New York
10. North Carolina
11. Rhode Island

 

Results of banning single-use plastic bags

Between 2012 and 2016, the total number of plastic bag litter in plastic-bag-ban states have dropped  76% and there’s also been a 69% reduction in bags found in storm drains and inlets. In total, there’s been a widespread reduction litter in all of the states that have enacted the ban. Although its effect on wildlife is too early to tell, marine biologists believe that there will be a positive effect given a clear correlation between single-use plastic bag waste and oceanic pollution that led to endangering marine life.

Banning plastic bags have also created new economies as there’s a stronger demand for reusable bags now. New industries are emerging to accommodate the growing demands and new regulations will also eventually make its way to legislation. But banning single-use plastic bags hasn’t been easy. Getting it from conceptual idea and into legislation has been a struggle (even for California) due to lobbyists fighting for plastic bags. Their argument has been in part due to consumer’s outrage at paying more to buy reusable bags at grocery stores. There’s also the inconvenience, diseases spreading from poorly treated recycled alternatives, and untested new materials replacing single-use plastic bags. Despite these challenges, many states were able to eventually enact the ban/restriction and have already began efforts to enforce new policies. And since then, nothing outrageous has happened. No riots or viral outbreak has occurred since the ban. Previous fear about citizens not adopting the ban or diseases being spread due to recyclable materials have also been put to rest. As it turns out, the ban didn’t affect people as much as lobbyist thought it would. And more citizens actually supported the ban than previous thought. 

 

Why other states should follow

The plastic bag ban had a positive outcome. In addition, there was full adoption by citizens of these states, so it’s only common sense for other states to eventually follow. Banning plastic bags is good for the environment and good for the economy. More jobs will be created as a result of new industries being created as a result of the single-use plastic bag ban.