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Jacquelyn Martin/AP
Don’t Demonize the Plastic Bag, Pleads Lone Defender
July 30, 2008 10:23 AM
by
Liz Colville
Attorney Stephen L. Joseph represents the plastic bag industry, which to many has come to epitomize the waste and excess that inspired the green movement.
30-Second Summary
Stephen L. Joseph, a California attorney who heads the Save the Plastic Bag campaign, concedes that it’s an “uphill battle” trying to change people’s minds about a largely unrecyclable object that has been “tied to everything from global warming to dependence on oil and the death of marine life.”
But some of the accusations of plastic bags are inconclusive, Joseph argues. “The anti-plastic-bag campaigners are not being challenged,” he told Time magazine. “It’s like a court case where nobody’s representing the other side.”
Still, proponents of reusable cloth and paper bags are fighting back with statistics. It “takes 12 million barrels of oil to make a year’s supply” of plastic bags, according to an editorial in The New York Times. But Save the Plastic Bag argues that U.S. bags are derived from natural gas, not oil.
Part of Joseph’s argument hinges on the detriments of paper bags, which release methane as they decompose and require more energy to make. But bags made from cloth or recyclable materials like plastic bottles are gaining momentum in supermarkets and through influential missions like ReusableBags.com.
Some companies are also developing heavier plastic bags that can be reused, or compostable plastic bags that break down better than the lightweight industry standard. The remaining fans of plastic contend that recycling is the answer to the problem, not fees, bans or a move toward paper bags.
Plastic bags were introduced to supermarkets in 1977. In the 1990s, plastic bag recycling programs were ramped up; in 2002, Ireland set a precedent by charging a fee for each plastic bag. Other European cities, several African countries, China and a number of U.S. cities have since followed suit with fees, bans and thickness requirements.
But some of the accusations of plastic bags are inconclusive, Joseph argues. “The anti-plastic-bag campaigners are not being challenged,” he told Time magazine. “It’s like a court case where nobody’s representing the other side.”
Still, proponents of reusable cloth and paper bags are fighting back with statistics. It “takes 12 million barrels of oil to make a year’s supply” of plastic bags, according to an editorial in The New York Times. But Save the Plastic Bag argues that U.S. bags are derived from natural gas, not oil.
Part of Joseph’s argument hinges on the detriments of paper bags, which release methane as they decompose and require more energy to make. But bags made from cloth or recyclable materials like plastic bottles are gaining momentum in supermarkets and through influential missions like ReusableBags.com.
Some companies are also developing heavier plastic bags that can be reused, or compostable plastic bags that break down better than the lightweight industry standard. The remaining fans of plastic contend that recycling is the answer to the problem, not fees, bans or a move toward paper bags.
Plastic bags were introduced to supermarkets in 1977. In the 1990s, plastic bag recycling programs were ramped up; in 2002, Ireland set a precedent by charging a fee for each plastic bag. Other European cities, several African countries, China and a number of U.S. cities have since followed suit with fees, bans and thickness requirements.
Headline Link: ‘The Patron Saint of Plastic Bags’
Stephen L. Joseph is one of a number of plastic bag proponents in California who are arguing that paper bags are not a viable replacement to plastic, and that commonly disseminated statistics about plastic bags’ impact on wildlife, landfills and the oil crisis are exaggerated or inconclusive. Joseph faces hurdles, as Los Angeles just imposed regulations on plastic bag use and San Francisco led the way with similar measures in 2007.
Source: Time
Background: Plastic bags become the enemy
The plastic bag became a viable grocery option in 1977, offered alongside paper sacks.
In 2002, Ireland became the first country to impose a fee on customers using plastic bags. The charge, equivalent to about 33 cents per bag, had a dramatic effect. “Within weeks, there was a 94 percent drop in plastic bag use,” according to the International Herald Tribune.
In 2002, Ireland became the first country to impose a fee on customers using plastic bags. The charge, equivalent to about 33 cents per bag, had a dramatic effect. “Within weeks, there was a 94 percent drop in plastic bag use,” according to the International Herald Tribune.
Source: The International Herald Tribune
Many European countries are following Ireland’s lead, according to ReusableBags.org, a pioneer in the reusable bag movement founded in 2003. The site provides news articles about recent movements in European cities to impose fees on plastic bags or ban them entirely. These cities include Glasgow, Venice, Paris and Brussels.
Source: ReusableBags.org
San Francisco became the first U.S. city to ban plastic bags in November 2007. According to the Associated Press, the U.S. is lagging far behind other countries, with China having imposed a ban early in 2008 and several African countries imposing thickness requirements. But Seattle followed San Francisco’s lead, and Los Angeles recently vowed to ban the bags by 2010 if a tariff was not imposed before then.
Source: The Associated Press [via the International Herald Tribune]
Opinion & Analysis: Are plastic bags really so bad?
An editorial in the Times of London earlier this year argued that focus on the “little things,” including plastic bags, was not going to have much impact on global warming. “Plastic bags create some emissions but on this really large concern they are marginal. Carbon emissions will only come under control with fundamental shifts in domestic, corporate industrial and agricultural practice.”
Source: The Times of London
The New York Times wrote in a 2007 editorial that the “plastic bag, like the plastic water bottle, has plagued environmentalists for years but has only recently worried consumers.” The plastic bag movement has come into the spotlight, the article suggests, because people are trying to “do their bit” to lessen their impact on the “earth’s garbage load.” And the statistics are not promising: “Up to 100 billion are used each year in this country, and they make bringing groceries home (or even protecting a newspaper from rain) so easy. But they also choke wildlife, create litter and overload dumps for generations to come.”
Source: The New York Times
But Save the Plastic Bag contends that plastic bags in the United States are not, in fact, made from oil, but are derived from ethane, which comes from natural gas. Attempting to dispel some of the commonly held claims about plastic bags, the campaign has its strongest argument in studies on paper bags, which contribute to deforestation, decompose more slowly and are allegedly more expensive to make.
Source: Save The Plastic Bag
Related Topics: Innovations within the confines of plastic; Joseph’s fight against trans fats
NPR reported on the California cities and towns inspired by San Francisco’s shift away from plastic, as well as a number of companies that are altering the traditional, lightweight plastic bag model, creating heavier bags that can be reused, as well as compostable plastic bags that break down more easily, though they are not technically biodegradable, just degradable. Some California cities don’t want to give up the bags at all, siding with Stephen Joseph’s argument. Many say that recycling is the answer, not bans or fees.
Source: NPR
Save the Plastic Bag’s Stephen L. Joseph filed a lawsuit against Nabisco in 2003, arguing that the partially hydrogenated soybean oil—a kind of trans fat—in Oreos is dangerous for children. Although he did not win, it was considered an important step toward California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s anti-trans-fat law, passed on July 25 of this year.
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
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