Towns Getting Tough On Plastic Bag Waste

leaf rapids

In an effort to keep its town clean and its environment unspoiled the aptly named Canadian town of Leaf Rapids has banned retailers from using plastic bags.

This is not the first shot Leaf Rapids has fired in the battle against what is in essence a complete waste of resources. Last year they added a cost of 3 cents (Canadian) on each plastic bag. This had the effect of reducing bag use by 50,000 bags. But it was only the first blow in the battle for freedom from waste.

The town banned the bags after a Canadian company that makes reusable bags approached the town with an offer to supply reusable bags for the town. Stores who go against the ban will face a 1000 dollar fine.

From the towns website (the site makes the town look “a little two quiet” could these plastic bag avengers be hiding something?)

On April 2 2007, Leaf Rapids became the first municipality in North America to introduce By-Law legislation banning single-use plastic shopping bags. After April 2nd, cloth shopping bags will be the order of the day. Retailers who contravene the By-Law by giving away or selling single-use plastic shopping bags could be liable to a fine of up to $1000.00.

In order to assist other municipalities that might want to introduce similar legislation, Leaf Rapids provides the wording By-Law # 462. The By-Law was passed at 12:01 AM on March 22 2007.

TOWN OF LEAF RAPIDS

By-Law No. 462

plastic bag waste

Now the question is how will we do this in America. I think the extra cost per bag is a great one. It would help grocery stores get back some of the cost of buying one time use bags (currently I imagine they just raise the cost of the food you buy). And it would help reduce the 4 to 5 TRILLION (yes that’s right Trillion) plastic bags used once and then thrown away world wide every year. If that won’t work you ban them outright.

That’s what happened in San Francisco.

Fifty years ago, plastic bags — starting first with the sandwich bag — were seen in the United States as a more sanitary and environmentally friendly alternative to the deforesting paper bag. Now an estimated 180 million plastic bags are distributed to shoppers each year in San Francisco. Made of filmy plastic, they are hard to recycle and easily blow into trees and waterways, where they are blamed for killing marine life. They also occupy much-needed landfill space.

Two years ago, San Francisco officials considered imposing a 17-cent tax on petroleum-based plastic bags before reaching a deal with the California Grocers Association. The agreement called for large supermarkets to reduce by 10 million the number of bags given to shoppers in 2006. The grocers association said it cut back by 7.6 million, but city officials called that figure unreliable and unverifiable because of poor data supplied by markets.

The dispute led to a renewed interest in outlawing the standard plastic bag, which Mirkarimi said Tuesday was a “relic of the past.” Under the legislation, which passed 10-1 in the first of two votes, large markets and pharmacies will have the option of using compostable bags made of corn starch or bags made of recyclable paper. San Francisco will join a number of countries, such as Ireland, that already have outlawed plastic bags or have levied a tax on them. Final passage of the legislation is expected at the board’s next scheduled meeting, and the mayor is expected to sign it.

“It’s really exciting,” Jared Blumenfeld, director of the city’s Department of the Environment, said after the vote on Tuesday. “We’re thrilled. It’s been a long time in the making.”

Blumenfeld said it takes 430,000 gallons of oil to manufacture 100 million bags.

(via)

If it takes 430,000 gallons of oil to make 100 million bags, by that estimate it takes 21,500,000 gallons of oil each year to make the worlds plastic bags, (assuming 5 trillion bags) that for the most part ends up in land fills…

7 thoughts on “Towns Getting Tough On Plastic Bag Waste”

  1. WHY DON’T YOU REPORT IT RIGHT, PLASTIC IS A BUYPRODUCT OF OIL NOT A ITEM STRICKLY MADE FROM OIL. YOU MAKE IT SOUND LIKE WE DRILL FOR OIL JUST TO MAKE BAGS. COME ON GET IT RIGHT.

  2. Talk about getting it right, Mr. Buyproduct! I think you meant byproduct, but considering your sophomoric response to an article reporting a noble cause, your elementary error is not surprising. Not sure where you got the idea, “it sound[s] like we drill for oil, just to make bags,” but to a large degree you are right. We do drill for oil just to make bags… And phones, and pens, and garbage cans, and to make cars go, and for a huge range of assorted products which are fundamental parts of our petroleum based society. Don’t you have something better to do than criticize articles playing a role in educating the world about the survival based need to transform our ways and to develop a sustainable society?

  3. Morna: I would say your first step would be to contact your local government officials and let them know that you would be interested in seeing this sort of thing become law. I would then organize as large a group of people as you can find and have them do the same. If enough people contact enough officials a law like this will be introduced, and passed into law.

  4. learn to do math. 5 billion = 21500000 gallons of oil. you stated 5 trillion bags were used worldwide. yet on other sites, 500 bil to 1 trillion is the stated amount.

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