This is a great step forward to forming a more sensitive and sustainable system!! In order to get consumables home, a shopper will either need to bring their own reusable bags, or pay a tax to use the store's reusable plastic bags. This is a strategy that has proved effective in other countries such as Ireland, Taiwan, South Africa, Australia, and Bangladesh. This sensational statewide ban will give us a chance at a new perspective on the cost of plastic bags.
It's quite controversial among internet sources how many plastic bags are used each year, but according to one source with a moderate estimate, 380 million plastic bags are produced each year and only 5.2% are recycled. The rest end up in the whirlwind of waste in our streets, nature, and landfills, not to dissappear for another thousand or so years. Daily use of plastic shopping bags began occurring in the 1980s. And this has ended up having diverse negative effects on wildlife and ecosystems. Recycling is not the answer in order to ease our conscience for our attachment to these unsavory commodities, the appearance of these bags of brief utility in remote ocean habitats has proved our inability to manage
Previously, the choice between paper or plastic is not always so clear cut. One source points out the many advantages of plastic.
"Compared to paper grocery bags, plastic grocery bags consume 40 percent less energy, generate 80 percent less solid waste, produce 70 percent fewer atmospheric emissions, and release up to 94 percent fewer waterborne wastes, according to the federation."
And that may be true, but presently we are faced with choices that contain more that just paper and plastic. Now we have the opportunity to break out of this dichotomy and pioneer our way into a new era of carrying consumables- the reusable bag!!
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