State Rep Wants to Ban Plastic Bags

Hey Tim,

Thanks for the information on PLA which is a controversial form of bio-based plastic. For the record, I just wrote a story elsewhere about PLA usage at UW and actually, its performance is markedly better than it used to be so, as far as that part of your argument goes, you may want to do some new research.

However, you promote the use of naptha-based plastics as a better alternative to PLA-based plastics. I have a much better idea: get rid of disposable shopping bags altogether. They are a totally unnecessary product and create nothing but waste. Sure, they can be composted and recycled if made from the right materials, but their creation and their recycling or composting still takes energy and resources. So does the creation of re-usable bags, but that is a one-time charge against the environment.

in short, the argument for or against bio-based plastic bags is a strawman argument. We don't need new disposable products. We need re-usable ones.

I read recently that a bill has been proposed in Washington state which requires that plastic bags used in grocery stores be made out of PLA (a corn based plastic.) This proposed bill is based on misconceptions which have been spread by the PLA lobby, which sells plastics made out of corn. This lobby is funded by the Dow Chemical Company, Cargill Inc., and ADM. These corporate giants make non-food items out of corn. Making non-food items out of grain is what caused last year's spike in grain prices. The part of oil, naphtha, that is made into plastic is not something that could be used for making anything else-it is not potential gasoline or diesel, for example. It was regarded as a waste product and burned off before we started making it into plastic.

There are a lot of problems with PLA - If we made all of the plastic disposable items used in the world every year out of PLA, it would take one hundred and fifty million tons of corn to make it. That would lead to mass starvation in the third world, as that represents at least 10% of the world's grain supply. It also takes a huge amount of oil to grow, fertilize, ship, and process this corn, and as a practical matter, it is also not recyclable-In fact, the recyclers are trying to get PLA banned because it gets mistaken for PET, and ruins their PET batches. Restaurant owners and merchants find it annoying that PLA becomes gummy in water, gives water stored in it an odd taste, softens at soup temperatures, and has a short shelf life. PLA is weaker than conventional and biodegradable conventional plastic, and more expensive per pound, as well. Also, PLA can't be composted at home-it takes the elevated temperatures of a commercial composter to compost PLA.

If PLA is placed into land fills, it gets buried so deeply that it is in a zone free of oxygen. Then anaerobic microorganisms digest it, releasing methane gas. PLA is consumed so quickly that the land fill is not capped before it creates methane, so all of that methane is released into the atmosphere, where it causes global warming. Some biodegradable plastics that are not corn based will also release methane if they are digested by anaerobic bacteria, but they do so so slowly that the land fill is capped before methane is released. When the land fills are capped, the methane is either burned off or it is used as a heat source for industrial uses, such as generating electricity.

In short, requiring grocery bags to be made out of PLA would be a counterproductive law which would enact a tax on the public for the benefit of socially irresponsible corporate giants. The alternative? Recyclable biodegradable plastics-Plastics made out of an otherwise useless industrial byproduct, naphtha, which have a harmless additive in them that makes them biodegrade. See http://biogreenproducts.biz for full information.

-Tim Dunn, Arlington WA

Maggie, not being a meat eater myself, I could never understand why people would get their meat wrapped in a bag and then put in a bag. Now I understand. Though, while you're need for plastic around meat makes sense, there must have been a solution for this problem before there were plastic bags. right?

BigGreenFrank, I'm with ya all the way (except for the last line ;-) )

Yarek, ick!

Please don't tell me I need to start carrying a reusable poop bag.

I'm willing to bet this leads to increased dog poop on the streets of Seattle.

Also, can we stop pretending PAPER bags are some saintly, zero-emission product? The chemicals and energy needed to produce these things aren't all that great either. (yes, even if they get recycled...)

Bottom line: use a reuseable bag.

(and yeah, quit it with these personal choice destroying, nanny-state laws.)

I think the way this has generally been done in other cities is to specifically ban disposable carrier bags, not the smaller ones that individual pieces of produce go into to protect them from each other.

I'm all for minimizing the use of plastic bags but I wonder if that counts produce and freezer bags. I went to TJs on Sunday and bought a roasting chicken and some other things. The checker put all my groceries in the same bag. When I got home the chicken had leaked bloody chicken juice all over the rest of my groceries so I got to spend the next half-hour WASHING OFF the rest of my food with hot soapy water. Gross! Luckily it was all things in containers, but I would have been super pissed if I had some naked produce in there that couldn't be washed. I hope they don't ban produce bags at least.

That photograph is rad.

Just came across this

I wrote letters to the City Council about the foam. They all seem pretty interested in the idea. I also urge folks to email them about the foam as well as paper recycling on the street corners.

I don't drink a lot of soda, and I don't know a lot of other folks who do right now either. Maybe that's why those Blue Recylcing cans for the aluminum are never full as I walk past to through away a bunch of newpaper into the garbage.