Short Version:

Irvine, CA should ban plastic bags in stores. Paper or plastic bags should only be available for a fee, and the use of reusable bags should be encouraged. Switching from single-use plastic bags to reusable bags is a simple lifestyle change that can have an immense, positive impact, and it really is the least we can do.

Please share the link to the petition on Facebook, Twitter, and through word-of mouth! Thank you!

Long version:

How many plastic bags do we leave each trip to the grocery store with? Five or six? Even more if they’re double-bagged. Californians dispose upwards of 100,000 tons of plastic bags each year. These bags are everywhere, even on the famed beaches California is known for.

The banning of plastic bags in one city may seem like a small step towards sustainability, but it is an important one that will lead to larger accomplishments. It is about time that Irvine, CA takes the initiative to do so—over a hundred other communities in California have taken the measure to ban plastic bags in recent years, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Laguna Beach, and Pasadena. Irvine should also place a fee on plastic/paper bags at the register and encourage reusable bag use.

Plastic bags cause a multitude of problems. First of all, they are not recycled well—less than 5 percent are recycled in both California and the U.S. as a whole. The rest go to the landfill. Plastics are also less valuable than other recyclables; plastic bags are often contaminated and cannot be recycled. Recycling one ton of plastic bags costs $4000, while the recycled product can only be sold for a mere $30*.

Plastic bags are produced from materials derived from petroleum, which is a nonrenewable resource. It is estimated that 12 million barrels of oil are needed to manufacture the 100 billion plastic bags used in the U.S. each year. The discarded bags often become litter in unwanted places and can clog sewers and storm drains. California spends $25 million annually to send plastic bags to landfills and $8.4 million to remove plastic bags from public spaces. Very little degrades in a landfill, and in nature, the plastic bags will photodegrade into very small pieces that collect and store pollutants and may be ingested by wildlife**.

Many places worldwide have now banned the use of plastic bags, and most have been successes. Even an alternative of a ban may be helpful: Ireland placed a 15 euro cent tax on plastic bags in 2002, and the use of plastic bags dropped by 90 percent***. However, the use of a mere tax may not be enough. In South Africa, a similar tax initially decreased plastic bag consumption, but over time, usage levels rose to the same numbers again as paying for plastic bags became the new norm****. There are also successes closer to home—San Jose has seen an 89 percent decrease in the number of plastic bags found in storm drains.

There are several issues that are brought up when discussing the possible ban. One is that consumers face an economic burden. However, a study by Los Angeles County found that it would cost a household less than $6 per year to purchase trash bag liners. Also, places like grocery stores can have bins where customers can drop off or take reusable bags, as they tend to accumulate in the household anyway.

Other things are harder to change—we have fewer alternatives to plastic bottles or paper packaging at the moment. However, switching from single-use plastic bags to reusable bags is a simple lifestyle change that can have an immense, positive impact, and it really is the least we can do.

Please share the link to the petition on Facebook, Twitter, and through word-of mouth! Thank you!

Disclaimer: Though efforts were made to ensure that all information above is as accurate and updated as possible, there may be errors.

*Clean Air Council. (2009, May). Why Plastic Bag Fees Work.

**Clapp, Jennifer, and Linda Swanston. "Doing away with plastic shopping bags: international patterns of norm emergence and policy implementation."Environmental Politics 18.3 (2009): 315-332.

***Convery, Frank, Simon McDonnell, and Susana Ferreira. "The most popular tax in Europe? Lessons from the Irish plastic bags levy." Environmental and Resource Economics 38.1 (2007): 1-11.

****Dikgang, Johane, Anthony Leiman, and Martine Visser. "Elasticity of demand, price and time: lessons from South Africa's plastic-bag levy." Applied Economics 44.26 (2012): 3339-3342.