Bag Bans: Solid Public Policy or Policy Failure?

Some community activists call for a complete ban on plastic bags being used in a community or placed in a landfill. Are such bans a viable use of the police powers of government to eradicate a public health hazard or are they misguided proposals that generate their own distortions and harms?

An objective review of such proposals has led Colorado Recycles to the clear conclusion that bans are not justifiable. The states of California and Illinois have rejected outright bans, as have the cities of New York and Los Angeles. Other cities that have plastic bag programs under development seem disinclined to pursue full bans and seem to be leaning toward the New York City and California models of promoting the use of resusable bags and retailer based plastic bag recycling drop off containers.

In fairness to the activists, early calls for outright bans were very likely based on some commonly held (but incorrect) beliefs about plastic bags. Some of those incorrect beliefs are discussed below:

*Plastic bags are not recyclable. It is true that plastic bag recycling has not been as prominent as has been recycling of other materials such as aluminum, glass and plastic bottles. However, public awareness has heightened interest in plastic bag recycling and has led to rapidly increasing recycling options. Recent analyses of plastic bag recycling have demonstrated that more than 812,000,000 pounds of plastic bags and related plastic film are recycled annually in the United States. More traditional materials such as plastic bottles, aluminum & steel cans and newspapers have been recycled for many years in most U.S. cities through efficient and cost effective curbside collection systems.  However, the preferred methodology for recycling of plastic bags, films and wraps is through a drop-off system such as retail stores and municipal drop-offs.  This method has been shown to make better sense from an economic standpoint in order to avoid contamination of plastic film.  Increased promotion and higher visibility of the availability of plastic bag recycling drop-offs at retail stores and municipalities has increased the recycling of bags, film and wraps by the general public.  Markets for the remanufacture of plastic bags, film and wraps are well-established to take the material and turn it into a variety of attractive and valuable end products such as composite lumber & decking, pallets and even new plastic bags. In fact, the demand for plastic bag and film materials has generally been exceeding the supply as most of the domestic and international end markets purchase material globally and are continually seeking new sources of clean bag and film material. This excess of demand over supply will lead to a more robust and stable market for the recyclable plastic bags and films.

There is nothing inherent about the polymers found in #2 and #4 plastics that militate against their successful recycling. In fact, a viable product for old plastic bags is new plastic bags - and they can be recycled into new bags over many cycles. Plastic bags are readily recyclable into plastic lumber composites for use in decks, park benches, picnic tables and other environmentally friendly products. One of Colorado Recycles favorite recycled plastic lumber uses is for boardwalks through marshes or estuaries and other marine and freshwater environments because no chemicals leach out of the material. The material can be used in almost any environmentally sensitive area where human foot traffic may hold the potential for disrupting fragile eco-systems. The United States Park Service, for example, has been replacing the ancient wooden boardwalk surrounding Old Faithful with plastic lumber which will provide visitors with a durable, safe and attractive surface for their stroll around the country's most famous geyser.

*Plastic bags are a major percentage of landfill materials and task scare landfill resources. The EPA generates very comprehensive statistical information about what materials end up in landfills in the country. In addition, some landfill operators and local governments develop their own specific statistics for their management needs. Colorado Recycles was not able to find reliable statistics that distinguish plastic bags from the larger category of containers and plastics, which suggests that those statistics do not exist. By their nature, plastic bags are light weight and easily compressed, leading to a reasonable conclusion that plastic bags are not likely to be a major contributor to landfill overload. According to the most recent EPA publication of national landfill and municipal solid waste statistics:

It should not go unnoted that Colorado does not have a landfill capacity problem. In fact, Colorado has large amounts of land that can be dedicated to either the expansion of existing landfills or the development of future landfills. Modern landfill construction and management techniques have resulted in operations that do not pose potential hazards to the aquifers, surface waters or surrounding areas. It may be true that some high property value communities in Colorado may experience an economic issue as to whether land should be dedicated to expanded landfill operations or used for commercial development, but such trade-offs are a matter of local land values and should not be used to generalize to the entire state. Those issues are market issues, and will be sorted out by the market. Such isolated market conditions are not generalizable to the state as a whole and should be considered idiosyncratic localized occurrences.

*Plastic bags do not biodegrade and simply remain in the landfill forever. It is true that plastic bags do not degrade in a landfill, but that attribute is not necessarily a liability. Biodegradation has become suspect as a waste management strategy. Several European countries have come to question whether biodegradable waste products should be allowed in landfills, and some countries have mandated a reduction in the percentage of biodegradable wastes being sent to landfills. One of the reasons for this change of strategies is that biodegradation produces methane, a gas which has raised concerns over its role as a greenhouse gas in global warming and climate change. Methane is believed to be second only to carbon dioxide with respect to its contribution to the greenhouse effect.

Plastic bags do not degrade in a landfill, and the inert nature of their chemistry does not produce landfill gases such as methane. The inert nature of the product does not produce any leachate. Modern landfills are designed to contain leachate so that aquifers and surface waters are not endangered. In fact, one of the most effective barriers to leachate migration is plastic liners which are made of high density polyethylene.

For biodegradation to occur, the material must be subjected to air, and modern landfills are designed to prevent air from reaching the materials in the landfill. Modern landfills are designed and operated to minimize biodegradation, not to accelerate or enhance it.

*Plastic bags are made from oil and the volume of plastic bag production uses several million barrels of oil every year in the United States. It is true that plastic bags are essentially a hydrocarbon and are produced from a non-renewable energy resource. However, in the United States that resource is natural gas rather than oil. Plastic bags are made of polyethylene, which is made from ethylene which is made from ethane that is extracted as a byproduct from natural gas. Ethane is a problem substance that must be removed from natural gas in order to make the natural gas viable for heating purposes. Ethane is a very high BTU substance and it simply burns too hot to be used for home heating and most industrial processes. The most viable use for ethane is to produce ethylene, which is the most produced organic compound in the world.

The production of polyethylene accounts for about 50% of the world demand for ethylene, and the United States is an exporter of polyethylene The manufacture of plastic bags from polyethylene does not adversely affect the supply of natural gas in the United States, nor does it have any relevance to the energy debate over oil production and the nation's dependence on foreign oil supplies. If ethane is not used for the production of ethylene, there would be a significant surplus of the gas which would likely be burned off in order to make the natural gas a more usable product. In fact, the history of natural gas production shows clearly that ethane was customarily burned off rather than captured. Recent scientific information concerning the contribution of greenhouse gases to global warming and climate change is a strong argument against burning ethane simply to dispose of it.

*Plastic bags are a major component of littler. One of the strategic objectives of recycling programs is the reduction of litter no matter if it is found by the roadside, along streams, in open spaces or in the marine environment. Litter is more than unsightly, it can be a public health hazard and a danger to wildlife. Plastic bags are found in litter, but it is not accurate to assert that they are a major component of litter. One of the best international anti-litter campaigns that is held annually is the International Coastal Cleanup sponsored by the Ocean Conservancy. In 2007, approximately 378,000 people from 76 different countries participated in the event and removed more than 6,000,000 pounds of debris from over 33,000 miles of shoreline and from underwater environments. Plastic bags were found to be in the debris mix, and the fact that plastic bags did not represent one of the major constituents in the mix does not suggest that their contribution is not important. Any material which is routinely found in litter should be targeted for either recycling or proper disposal, even if it is not one of the major components of litter or debris.

Littering is a human behavior, and the only way that human behavior is changed is through comprehensive and sustained education. As is the case with most human behaviors, littering is a learned behavior and adults are responsible for teaching children to properly contain and dispose of all discardable materials. To quote Vikki Spruill, the President and CEO of the Ocean Conservancy, "After all, trash doesn't fall from the sky, it falls from people's hands."

Based on the research conducted by Colorado Recycles, it is clear that attempts to ban plastic bags on the premise that litter will be reduced is an action that is not only fails to address human behavior it also sets up a false sense of accomplishment and an unrealizable expectation among the public that corrective actions have been taken. A sounder approach is to support and encourage the reuse and recycling of plastic bags and all other recyclable material and the proper disposal of materials that cannot be recycled..