The ‘oppressed’ plastic bag
ten years ago, california became the first american state to ban the use of single-use plastic bags. this encouraged other states to follow suit, and plastic became a bogeyman. however, environmental activists have recently noticed that plastic bag waste, by weight, is increasing to unprecedented levels.
in the year the ban was passed, 158,000 tons of this waste were disposed of in california alone, and by 2022, it had risen to 231,000 tons, an increase of 47%. the per capita share rose from 4 tons per thousand in 2014 to nearly 6 tons per thousand in 2022.
it turned out that the problem was with a provision of the prohibition law that allowed grocery stores and major retailers to provide thicker, heavier plastic bags to customers in exchange for paying 10 cents per bag, to encourage them to reuse them again. they are also made of 20% recyclable materials, but because they didn’t look much different from the fragile bags that were banned, many people did not reuse them, even though they bore the “recycle” symbol.
if we had not looked inside the plastic shopping bags, which many countries have banned from using in grocery and retail stores, and what we put in them while we were shopping, whether food or other consumer items, we would have found that the fruits and food items in them, fresh or canned, were originally wrapped in plastic or similar materials; such as foam materials or packaged in plastic materials, such as ice cream, dairy products, ketchup, salad mixes, honey, vegetables, fresh juices, and hundreds of similar materials.
as for non-food items, the situation is even more ridiculous, as the majority of their containers are made of plastic, such as shampoo, conditioner, cleaning tools and materials, and many others. water also reaches our homes through materials made of plastic, and replacing them with copper, lead, or galvanized iron is harmful and very expensive.
plastic is also used in thousands of industries, such as clothes, toothbrushes, cosmetics, medical glasses, accessories for cars, airplanes, ships, furniture, shoes, camp covers, and farms of vegetables, fruits, poultry, and animals.
therefore, it is ridiculous to focus on plastic bags and leave other packaging machines that pollute the environment without restrictions on use. therefore, plastic will remain in our lives for many decades to come, and oil, the source of plastic, will remain dominant for many years to come.
this does not mean at all leaving the issue as it is, as many do not know the amount of ultra-fine plastic materials that enter our bodies, amounting to hundreds of thousands, through a plastic water bottle the size of one and a half liters. therefore, we must all, as individuals, society, and government, strive to increase the percentage of these materials that are reused, as this is the effective solution, and not preventing the use of plastic in our lives, as most of it is not left behind!
