Hold The Carbon

Colorado was debating some of the most far-reaching and progressive anti-plastic laws in the country.  A bill would have created an outright ban of the product for use by large retailers by 2012.  The plastic bag lobby didn’t like this legislation one bit and did everything they could to stop it.  They succeeded.

By making the argument that a ban on plastic would shift consumers over exclusively to paper bags, there would be no gain for the environment, according to those against the bill.  While it is correct that it takes four times as much energy to create a paper bag than a plastic bag, the elected officials failed to grasp consumer shifts towards reusable bags made out of PET, canvas, cotton or jute.  But the plastic bag lobby kept leaders focused squarely on the paper issue and used that as leverage to defeat the bill. ”

According to the Associated Press, “Colorado shoppers will be able to keep using plastic grocery bags after lawmakers balked at what would have been the nation’s first statewide ban on the synthetic sacks. A state Senate bill banning the use of plastic bags by large retailers by 2012 was defeated Tuesday after a handful of Democrats joined with Republicans in voting against it. Critics argued that the ban would inevitably lead to increased use of paper bags, which they argued take more energy to produce and take up more room in landfills than cheaper, lighter plastic bags. Bill sponsor Sen. Jennifer Veiga, D-Denver, said no other states have passed such bans yet and thinks Colorado lawmakers were wary of being the first. She said many were also contacted by constituents who didn’t want to have to give up their bags.”

The bill was pushed by college students, eager to help shift consumers to reusable bags.  They have vowed to be back next year to pick up the fight once again.  Perhaps by then more elected officials will be educated on this issue and not fall prey to the misinformation and distortions of the plastic bag lobby.

If you want to learn more about reusable products check out our main website at http://www.htcbag.com.

In the second half of 2008 we were really making progress on reducing plastic bags around the country.  Cities and municipalities had taken strong steps to introduce legislation which would impose a fee or tax on plastic bag usage.  Some even went as far as to ban them in stores.  This, obviously, was a threat to the plastic bag lobby.  If these bills went through, they would need to find a new line of work and certainly with jobs being scarce its better for them to hold onto their day jobs. 

One of the most aggressive efforts to curb plastic bag usage was undertaken by Seattle, where a 20-cent user fee was to be imposed.  Then, the plastic bag lobby stepped in and created a petition drive to stop the legislation.  They succeeded in having the issue put to the voters in August of 2009.  While we have great faith in the people of Seattle, the lobby won’t go down without a long drag out fight. 

Many legislators are arguing that now is not the time to impose such a fee because of the economy.  In reality, the inverse is true.  Now is the best time for such a fee to be imposed.  If you are a store owner, this fee will not hurt business, in fact, it will help business.  If you switch to reusable bags (which can be sold for $.99), business owners can add a new revenue stream to their business.  Plastic and paper bags are a cost center - but reusable products are a profit center.  Isn’t now a great time for businesses to find new ways to add revenue to their balance sheets, while at the same time helping the environment? 

For consumers we have become greedy.  Banks were leveraged 47x, consumers were living off credit cards, in short we were a culture of excess.  Plastic bags are part of that culture.  Now is the time to deviate from that and start anew.  By switching consumers to reusables, we can end the systemic waste that is part of the plastic bag culture - more, more, more - without consideration for the consequences.  Just like with our economy, there are ramifications for our actions and now is the time to change course. 

Today’s New York Times has an article about the efforts of the plastic bag lobby to halt the migration of consumers and governments towards policies that diminish plastic bags.  The Times is reporting, “Stephen L. Joseph, a lawyer in the San Francisco Bay Area, is working with several plastic-bag makers and runs the Web site savetheplasticbag.com. Mr. Joseph has filed lawsuits in an effort to stop bans and fees proposed in California by Manhattan Beach and Los Angeles County.  In the Manhattan Beach case, a Superior Court judge ruled on Friday in favor of bag makers, saying the city should have determined whether a ban on plastic bags would have caused environmental damage by increasing the use of paper bags.”

It looks like this is going to be a long fight to get plastics removed from our stores and to fully integrate reusable products in their place.  Ultimately it will be worth the effort, but it is going to take a lot time, energy and effort.  The plastic bag lobby is fully funded and ready to unleash a strong PR campaign in every single market where plastics are challenged.  But they can be defeated. 

So my question is, whose in?

Yes, that’s right, plastic is being celebrated this week by an organization called “Plastindia.”  Rather ironic isn’t it when you consider that New Delhi passed the world’s strongest anti-plastic law recently (too strong actually since it sends people to jail who are caught with a plastic bag).

The New York Times has an insightful article in Wednesday’s edition. The Times reports, “Just last month New Delhi passed a preliminary ban imposing a five-year jail term or a 100,000-rupee fine, about $2,055, on anyone caught carrying or handing out plastic bags. That did not stop 67,000 plastics professionals from convening here last week for Plastindia 2009, a five-day celebration of all things plastic. The trade show was billed as the second-largest plastics convention in the world. (The first, K Fair, is in Germany.)…And whenever they could, they complained about what they considered the unfair prejudice against the plastic bag. ‘Politicians have gone overboard,’ said Arvind M. Mehta, president of the Plastindia Foundation, the trade group sponsoring the conference. ‘Our industry is facing a problem and we have to fight.’ Seated in a makeshift office of four plastic walls behind a faux-wood plastic desk at the convention, Mr. Mehta repeated a line similar to one used by pro-gun groups in the United States: it is not the plastic bag that causes the problems, he said, it is the person who uses it.”

Does it really help your case when you take the talking points of the NRA and put them into action to defend plastic?  Probably not.

Although when you start to put the gun lobby and the plastic lobby in the same boat, perhaps that is a sign of progress and a sign that people are ready to move on from plastic consumption.

In 2002, Australia used 5.9 billion plastic bags.  Last year they reduced that number to 3.9 billion.  Peter Garrett, the Environment Minister, says that is not enough and has pushed Australia towards eliminating them altogether.   However, despite his best efforts, Australia is having difficulty achieving this goal. 

The Sydney Morning Herald reports, “It is barely a year since the Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, made the rather inflated pronouncement that Australia would ban the plastic shopping bag by the end of this year. Guess what? It is the end of 2008. And the federation of Australia is doing nothing of the sort.  When it came to the crunch, in April and again in November, the states could not agree on how to wean the nation off this addiction: about 4 billion plastic bags a year. Most end up in landfill. Some masquerade as jellyfish and cause marine predators choke and die.”

Sure, getting rid of plastic bags will not be easy.  For decades they have been used without any regard for their ill-effects on the environment.  But today we know better.  That is why at Hold the Carbon, we have created a fantastic portable bag that is 100% green and 100% reusable. 

And yes starting in January of 2009 if you live in South Australia or on the South Side of Chicago, you can get your hands on this incredible new product.

The abundant use of plastic bags across the nation has provoked the environmental consciences of many cities, including Berkeley, to consider enacting plastic bag bans.  Most cities are pushing for taxes or fees on plastic bag usage, but keeping true to its progressive roots, Berkeley is seeking an outright ban on the bags.

Berkeley’s preliminary proposal for a ban has been written, said the city’s Zero Waste Commission chair Nashua Kalil, and may be brought to the City Council as early as January.

The proposal for the ban started with an outreach program that lasted six months, ending in January 2008. The program took into account merchant and resident concerns about ending the use of plastic bags and gathered input for the design of the proposal.

But many plastic bags will still be sent to landfills, as the ban will be adopted in phases, with big retail businesses being the first affected.

Though plastic bag recycling is an option, a 2004 city of Berkeley waste stream analysis stated that the market for plastic films-which make up plastic bags-is poorly developed and that source reduction is a more practical solution than recycling.

Additionally, the majority of recycling facilities, like Berkeley’s, do not accept plastic bags. The only way to recycle them is at supermarkets that offer collection and recycling programs.