Affirmative

Shoppers use 500 billion to 1.5 trillion single-use plastic bags worldwide every year.

The average plastic grocery store bag or takeout bag has an approximate 12-minute
lifespan. After being tossed out, they clog storm drains and sewage, degenerate into
toxic microplastics that fester for up to 1,000 years in our landfills and oceans.
Shoppers, as a whole, use approximately 500 billion single-use plastic bags each year,
equating to 150 bags per individual, per year for each person on this plant — or
enough to circle the planet 4,200 times.

These bags typically end up in landfills or the ocean. More than 100,000 marine
mammals get entangled in plastic bags and die annually.

As of August 2019 70 countries have implemented bans, with varying degrees of

enforcement
Across 23 states, over 200 counties and municipalities have their own bans in place.

According to a U.N. report, 127 countries had implemented some type of policy
regulating plastic bags by July 2018.

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), up to 5trn plastic bags are

consumed each year. Disposed of improperly, they can clog waterways, choke marine
life and provide a breeding-ground for malaria-carrying mosquitoes. When dumped in
landfills, they can take centuries to decompose.

Hazardous to environment
major cause of water pollution. These are also responsible for making our agricultural
lands infertile
Plastic is a non-biodegradable substance. It breaks into small particles, and enter the
soil and water bodies however they do not decompose. It remains in the environment
for more than 500 hundred years and adds to environmental pollution. It goes into the
landfills and leaks pollutants that damage soil and water. bags don't break down
completely but instead photo-degrade, becoming microplastics that absorb toxins and
continue to pollute the environment. Plastic cannot even be disposed of by burning as
on burning it produces poisonous gases that can cause serious diseases.
This waste material enters water bodies and degrades the quality of drinking water.
aren't easy to recycle, which is the biggest reason why 90 percent of plastic bags in
the U.S. are not recycled.
Plastic bags are produced using petroleum, natural gas and other chemicals. Its
production is toxic to the environment.
Plastic bags start as crude oil, natural gas or other petrochemical derivatives, which
are transformed into chains of hydrogen and carbon molecules known as polymers or
polymer resin. By some estimates nearly 12 million barrels of petroleum oil (or fuel
equivalents such as natural gas) are used to produce 100 billion plastic bags. Given
what we know about both fossil fuel scarcity and the detrimental impacts of fossil fuel
extraction and use on the environment, it is truly a travesty to so carelessly waste this
limited and valuable resource.
Rebuttal: The U.K. Environment Agency's study, for instance, compared the energy
expended in creating, using and disposing of plastic, paper and reusable bags to arrive
at its figures. Consumers would have to use a cotton bag 173 times before they match
the energy savings of one plastic bag, assuming 40% of bags are reused—a
percentage that's actually lower than the rate in some cities.

Harm human health

Plastic bags are widely used for food packaging. Researchers claim that some toxic
elements from the plastic enter the food items packed in them. Plastic bags thus
contaminate the food rather than keeping it safely packed. Many cases of plastic
causing harm to the food have been reported. Eating such food can cause food
poisoning, intestinal problems and other health hazards. Plastic bags can even lead to
suspected human carcinogen.

production of plastic bags releases toxic chemicals that can cause serious illness
among those involved in their production; toxic chemicals produced while giving plastic
bags their desirable form have a negative impact on the health of those involved in
their making.

Rebuttal: studies from organizations like the Environmental Protection Agency, the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Pacific Northwest National Labs
show these claims are false or exaggerated.
study from the U.K. Environment Agency that found plastic grocery bags have the
lowest environmental impact in "human toxicity" and "marine aquatic toxicity" as well
as "global-warming potential" even after paper bags are used four times and reusable
cotton bags are used 173 times. Why? Largely because paper and cotton bags come
from crops that require fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides and the like.

Harm animals
Animals and marine creatures are worst effected by waste plastic bags.
 Animals often eat small plastic content and even the entire plastic bags along with their
food. Small plastic content accumulates in their body and causes health problems over
the time. On the other hand, gulping the entire plastic bag in one go can suffocate
them to death instantly.

Ocean debris kills almost 1million sea birds & 100,000 marine creatures each year
(Unesco)

Discarded plastic bags float in the ocean, they tumble in the desert, they are found in
riverbeds and dams. They kill off marine animals that confuse the bags with plankton
and jellyfish; they end up calcified in the stomachs of animals on land.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), marine plastic
pollution has affected at least 267 species, most visibly and disturbingly by ingestion,
suffocation and entanglement.

Rebuttal: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, for one, says there
are currently no published studies about how many marine mammals die because of
marine debris. Meanwhile, other sources of marine debris, such as discarded fishing
gear, are recognized as a danger to sea life. Why the frenzy over one source—plastic
bags—in the absence of evidence?
study by Ospar, the European organization working to protect the marine
environment. The study found plastic shopping bags represented less than 3% of
marine litter on European beaches, a figure that includes scraps of plastic from
shredded bags.

 Plastic bags bans enhance the economy: Bans on plastic bags cause an uptick in
business for reusable bag manufacturers and lead to increased employment
opportunities.
 Eliminating plastic bags reduces cost of goods: Stores have to factor in the cost of
disposable bags into their prices. By eliminating plastic bags, stores can lower prices,
helping shoppers save $18 to $30 annually.
4 billion dollars is collected each year in profits by the plastic bag industry from U.S.
retailers.
 Rebuttal: plastic bags cost consumers more, the reason grocery stores use plastic
instead of paper or other bags is that they cost less and hold more. Reusable bags are
even more expensive.

 Plastic bags are not biodegradable: When plastics bags become litter, they pollute
oceans, rivers, farmlands, cities, and neighborhoods. Bans eliminate bags, which
equals less litter and less pollution.
 Picking up litter costs tax money: Banning plastic bags will reduce litter and allow
for tax money to be redirected to more important areas.
 Marine life will improve: Marine animals often mistake plastic bags as jellyfish or
plankton, leading them to consume the litter and become ill or die.
 Drainage infrastructures run more efficiently: Plastic litter often clogs drainage
systems, causing unnecessary flooding.
 Plastic bag bans reduce the need to petroleum: Banning plastic bags will minimize
the dependency on the limited non-renewable resource.
 Decrease the mosquito population: Discarded plastic bags collect rainwater and
creates a breeding ground for mosquitos, some of which could carry the West Nile
Virus or Triple E Virus.

Economic Cost
But the greatest damage is economic—the cost of cleaning up all that waste. That's
why dozens of countries and cities around the world, including 47 municipalities in
California alone, have adopted ordinances banning plastic bags.
San Jose, Calif., reports that it costs about $1 million a year to repair recycling
equipment jammed with plastic bags San Francisco estimates that to clean up, recycle
and landfill plastic bags costs as much as 17 cents a bag, or approximately $8.5 million
a year.

Rebuttal: claim that municipalities spend a substantial amount of their trash budget, let
alone millions of dollars, on picking up plastic bags is hard to believe. In many cases,
these claims are guesses by advocates instead of data based on actual studies, and
cost is often thrown in as a justification after bans are enacted for political reasons.

Elsewhere in the world, Bangladesh banned plastic bags because they clog storm-
drain systems and cause major flooding, which in turn has significant economic cost.

Many cities around the globe have already banned the ubiquitous bags from stores,
and activists are pushing for bans elsewhere. They argue that cities must spend vast
sums to clean up the bags and the damages caused by them, money that's better
 spent elsewhere. Not to mention that plastic bags are a blight on the environment,
polluting waterways and other natural areas and killing off animals. Banning plastic
bags, the activists say, will redirect funds to infrastructure and spur entrepreneurial
efforts to come up with alternatives to plastic.

And these policies have real effects downstream — literally. San Jose, California,
implemented its Bring Your Own Bag Ordinance in 2012, which included a ban on
single-use plastic and a 10-cent fee for paper, and found dramatic decreases in “bag
litter” in the city’s creeks and waterways. “The litter surveys demonstrated a reduction
in bag litter of approximately 89 percent in the storm drain system,” a city environment
and transportation committee report read, “60 percent in the creeks and rivers, and 59
percent in city streets and neighborhoods, when compared to data collected from 2010
and/or 2011 (pre-ordinance) to data from 2012 (post-ordinance).”

What drove the decrease in litter wasn’t just more people using more reusable bags —
although that happened — but also a rise in using no bags. Reusable bag use jumped
from about 4 percent of bags, the city said, to 62 percent, while the portion of people
who used no bag doubled, and the average number of bags used per customer fell
from three to fewer than one.

Summary


 Waste plastic bags are polluting the land and water immensely.
 Plastic bags have become a threat to the life of animals living on earth as well as in
water.
 Chemicals released by waste plastic bags enter the soil and make it infertile.
 Plastic bags are having negative impact on the human health.
 Plastic bags lead to drainage problem

On average, a plastic bag has only a 12-minute lifespan, according to Reusethisbag,

an organization that sells sustainable grocery bags. The convenience of plastic bags is
simply not worth the environmental impact

Most bags wind up languishing in landfills, where they can remain for up to 1,000
years. Some make their way into the ocean.
Recently, a pregnant sperm whale washed up dead on the shores of Sardinia with
nearly 50 pounds of plastic in its stomach. Less than a month earlier, another dead
whale was found to have ingested 88 pounds of plastic.

A ban on super thin plastic bags cut the use of 40 billion bags, reduced plastic bag
usage by 66 percent and saved China 1.6 million tons of petroleum, according to
recent government estimates, Worldwatch reports.

A 2019 study in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management found that
the implementation of a ban on plastic carryout bags in California led to a reduction of
40 million pounds of plastic through the elimination of plastic carryout bags but that
Californians purchased 12 million pounds of plastic through trash bag purchases.
[20]
The study showed that before the introduction of the ban between 12% and 22% of
plastic carryout bags were re-used as trash bags.[20]
Plastic bag bans can lead to larger black markets in plastic bags.[7] The production of
some non-plastic bags (e.g. paper, cotton) can produce more greenhouse gas
emissions than plastic bags, which means that greenhouse gas emissions may
increase on net following plastic bag bans. Further, the bans can drive significant
increases in sales of trash bags; these trash bags are thicker and thus use more
plastic than typical store-issued bags.

Conclusion
intensity at which plastic is destroying our environment and making life difficult for
plants, animals, marine creatures as well as human beings.
It is in our favour to stop their use and switch to eco-friendly alternatives.
inadvertent overconsumption of single-use plastic carries with it a very high cost to
the environment, which in turn also negatively affects our health.

they are polypropylene, but they’re reusable and they’re not the thin bags that can be
carried by the wind

imperfect ban is better than none.

The UN estimates that between one and five trillion bags are produced worldwide.
Even using the lowest figure, that translates into bag use of two million bags per
minute, according to the Earth Policy Institute.
Alternatives to bans
 Other countries are experimenting with mandatory minimum charges or voluntary
phase-outs for plastic bags. For example, the UK has a mandatory 5-pence charge for
plastic bags and Australia’s two biggest supermarket chains voluntarily stopped
handing out free plastic bags this month.

Some places tax plastic bags in lieu of a ban.

Most of the reasons bandied about by those who contest plastic bag bans are not so
much reasons, as they are counterarguments against valid realities to implementing a
ban.
According to Ellen MacArthur Foundation, prediction that by mid-century, the oceans
will contain more plastic waste than fish, (nat geo)

banning single-use plastic bags will avoid the resource use and negative
environmental impacts associated with their manufacture.

Negative
in Kenya, 100,000 jobs in the plastics manufacturing industry could be lost.

Once it took effect, the ban prompted the creation of “bag cartels” that smuggled
illegal plastic bags from neighboring Uganda and Tanzania.

argued that while litter does contribute to the death of thousands of marine animals
each year, it is not fair to single out plastic bags as the cause. The “plastic bags aren’t
only to blame” argument goes on to explain that lost or abandoned fishing gear is also
responsible for the wrongful death of marine animals and a plastic bag ban does not
address the entire problem. This “all or nothing” rationale is not only weak, it is short
sighted.

=>Just because there is a wide variety of litter in our oceans does not mean we should
sit by and not attempt to begin to fix the plastic problem. Solving parts of a problem—
with products like eco-friendly reusable bags—ultimately serves to contribute to a
greater solution.

 Plastic bans manufacturers scale back: Bans often lead plastic bag manufacturers
to scale back business and may lead to layoffs.
 Upfront cost to shoppers: Plastic bag bans will require shoppers having to purchase
reusable bags, verge $30
=> Rebuttal: Reusable bags re designed to last 3-6years; that works out to be less
than HK$10/year.
plastic bags are seen as a scourge because they aren't often recycled. While the
plastics industry says more than 90% of Americans reuse their bags at least once, the
Environmental Protection Agency estimates they are recycled at less than one-third
the rate of paper bags.

arn of a new technology aimed at turning plastic bags into transportation fuels such as
diesel and gasoline, and into other high-value products such as natural gas, waxes,
and lubricating oils. Researchers at the University of Illinois in Chicago (the latest city
to pass a plastic bag ban, effective August, 2015) recently discovered that plastic bags
can quite efficiently be turned back into crude product through an oxygen-free heating
process known as pyrolysis. According to the researchers, “You can get only 50 to
55% fuel from the distillation of petroleum crude oil. But since this plastic is made from
the petroleum in the first place, we can recover almost 80% fuel from it through
distillation.”

Currently, the majority of plastic bags are recycled into composit lumber, which is used
for decking, door and window frames, park benches and the like. Companies
like Trex are leading this field as one of the largest recyclers of plastic bags in the U.S.

Taxed, not banned Plenty of other places have chosen not to ban plastic bags, but to
discourage them through financial means. There have been taxes on plastic bags
since before 2008 in Italy, Belgium, and Ireland, where plastic bag use dropped by 94
percent within weeks of the 2002 ban. In Switzerland, Germany, and Holland, the bags
come with a fee. And, in one lonely case (that I could find) of a reversal on a ban after
it was implemented, Taiwan had a ban on plastic bags for three years before it lifted it
in 2006

=> Efforts to increase bag recycling with take-back programs, for instance, have shown
minimal success to date. Since 2007, the state of California has been working on an
in-store program to recycle bags, and there is no conclusive evidence that it has been
successful.

According to a 2018 study in the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, a five-
cent tax on disposable bags reduced disposable bag usage by 40 percentage points.
[19]
According to a 2019 review of existing studies, levies and taxes led to a 66%
reduction in usage in Denmark, more than 90% in Ireland, between 74-90% in South
Africa, Belgium, Hong Kong, Washington D.C., Santa Barbara, the UK and Portugal,
and around 50% in Botswana and China.[7]
They argue that other types of waste, such as discarded fishing gear, also kill fish, so
why focus on plastic bags? Other waste does certainly harm fish and should be
addressed. But plastic bags kill just as many, and their broader impact on the
environment and the economy makes them a much more urgent concern.

What's more, when talking about pollution, critics often don't take into account the
whole environmental impact of bags, including the energy used to manufacture and
dispose of them. And they often rely on heavily flawed estimates of how many bags
end up as pollution.

=> One out of every 10 items picked up in an International Coastal Cleanup in 2009
was a plastic bag. That makes plastic bags the second most common kind of waste
item found in coastal cleanup.

Bans yield little benefit to wildlife while increasing carbon emissions and other
unhealthy environmental effects; bans have little effect

=> many Countries don’t Regulate Plastic throughout its Lifecycle; Countries Prefer
Partial Bans; Hardly Any Countries Restrict Manufacturing or Production of Plastic
Bags; There are Numerous Exemptions; Incentives Aren’t Offered for Single-Use
Plastic Bag Alternatives

When Seattle considered its first bag ban, politicians touted the benefits, including
reductions in energy and water use. The claims ignored the use of substituted bags,
thus making the projections extremely favorable toward the ban.

Even with those skewed numbers, my estimates show a saving of $278,452 worth of
carbon emissions and water for a cost of $10 million to consumers. Somehow
spending $100 to receive $3 in environmental benefit is supposed to be smart policy.

However, the ACT government also noted an increase in sales of plastic bags
designed specifically for waste. These are typically similar in size to single-use
shopping bags but heavier and therefore contain more plastic. Ireland’s tax on plastic
shopping bags, implemented in 2002, also resulted in a significant increase in sales of
heavier plastic waste bags. These bags are often dyed various colours, which
represents another resource and potential environmental contaminant.

According to a UK Environmental Agency report, a paper bag would need to be re-

used at least four times, and cotton bags at least 173 times, to have a lower
environmental impact than single-use plastic bags in terms of resource use, energy
and greenhouse outcomes.

Harding points to a 2006 study commissioned by the Environment Agency of the

United Kingdom that says a cotton reusable bag would have to be used 131 times
before it starts to create fewer emissions than single-use plastic bags. In contrast,
reusable plastic bags would have to be reused 11 times in order to reduce emissions.

Recycling

Plastic bags are 100% recyclable. Recycling is easy and makes a real difference. Your
recycled plastic bags may get a new life as eco-friendly raw material for playgrounds,
construction materials, and new plastic bags; Plastic bags require 90 percent less
energy to recycle than paper bags

Plastic bag recycling supports American manufacturing jobs. In 2017, 81% of plastic
retail bags and film returned for recycling were reclaimed by U.S. and Canadian
recyclers.¹

=> According to Waste Management, only 1% of plastic bags are returned for
recycling; what’s more, process of recycling of plastics has always been difficult ; 2015
research by the University of California Santa Barbara estimated that 8 million metric
tons of plastic ends up in the oceans every year.

=> It costs approximately $4,000 to recycle one ton of plastic bags. But the selling
price of these recycled bags is twice the cost.

Plastic bags can’t be sorted from other materials by the machinery at recycling
facilities. They often get stuck in conveyor belts, jam equipment and delay the entire
sorting system, making it impractical for plastic bags to be collected with curbside
recycling.

As a result, some grocery stores provide collection bins to properly recycle plastic
bags, but it’s easy for shoppers to forget to bring them back.

Other critics say the term “single-use” is inaccurate because many people reuse plastic
shopping bags repeatedly since most are sturdy enough for multi-use.

“It’s really a misnomer to call them single-use bags, as people use lots of them for
multiple reasons such as lining trash bins, removing waste from pets, and carrying
items from one place to the next,” said Frank Stephenson, an economics professor at
Berry College in Georgia.

Production of plastic bags more environmentally friendly

A 2018 study by the Ministry of Environment and Food of Denmark showed that the
manufacturing and disposal of plastic bags had a lower environmental impact than six
alternate bags offered as replacement at most supermarkets. It stated that each
alternate material would have to be reused a certain number of times to negate the
pollution of its production and to equal that of a plastic bag that has only been used
one time.

Bag bans and taxes make trips to the grocery store more expensive, especially for low-
and fixed-income families – with no meaningful impact on the environment to back
them up. They also threaten thousands of U.S. manufacturing jobs.

Be mindful with your reusable canvas and non-woven bags. Without frequent washing
and appropriate storage, reusable bags can harbor dangerous bacteria.

Reuse - Nearly 90% of Americans reuse plastic bags. What do you do with yours?

Recycling Programs

States have a long history of pursuing legislation related to labeling, recycling, and
reusing plastic bags. In 1991, Maine became the first state to enact legislation
requiring recycling efforts at retail stores. The law prevents retailers from supplying
plastic bags unless they provide a convenient storefront receptacle to ensure used
bags are collected and recycled. Since then at least four other states—California,
Delaware, New York and Rhode Island—and the District of Columbia have
followed suit.

Weighing the costs and benefits makes it clear that banning plastic bags yields little
benefit at very high cost. Unfortunately, the political symbolism of banning the bags is
powerful.

plastic-bag bans are more about environmental image than environmental benefit.

When it comes to environmental impacts, it’s important not to simply exchange one
problem for another. If all we’re doing is swapping between different types of plastic,
it’s hard to see how we’re solving anything.