Written by Samuel Tse
The single-use plastic bag is a notorious and seemingly ever-lasting bag that roams from city to city, littering the streets. Proposition (Prop) 67 aims to stop the creation of this trash by ratifying Senate Bill 270, which will effectively ban plastic bags in California. Over 151 counties and local jurisdictions have already prohibited grocery and retail stores from pro- viding plastic bags to customers at the time of purchase. Voting “yes” on Prop 67 means plastic bags would be banned statewide—not just in certain areas.
Prop 67 has many environmental benefits. According to The Wall Street Journal, 100 billion plastic bags are used annually in the United States with most only being used once. is causes space issues in land fills and litter problems in cities. Although plastic bags are recyclable, a single plastic bag can take 20 to 1,000 years to completely break down, even biodegradable-specific bags.
Plastic bags can also affect a variety of wildlife. When plastic bags end up in the ocean, they float. Because of this, they can seem like jellyfish, especially to marine animals. Creatures like sea turtles, tuna and sun fish mistake the bags for food and many die of suffocation or starvation upon indigestion. In addition, birds are also affected by plastic litter. An example is the island Midway Atoll, a popular mating area for Albatrosses. On the island, beaches are filled with plastic trash from the ocean, and through autopsies, scientists found that many of the Albatrosses’ stomachs were filled with plastic. All this plastic can greatly endanger an animal population.
By effectively banning plastic bags, California sets an example for other state legislatures to pass similar laws. The plastic bag tax that California enacted in August 2014 gives past precedent of this happening.
While some people say plastic bags should be allowed in stores for the convenience of customers, the risk and danger these bags pose to the environment is greater than having that convenience as an option. Instead of using plastic bags, many stores offer paper bags, a more eco-friendly option.
If one plastic bag can have an effect on the environment, think of the billions of plastic bags that will engulf the earth if we continue with our plastic bag usage. This needs to end