Banning Plastic Bags Works To Limit Shoreline Litter, Study Finds

An anonymous reader shares a report: At tens of thousands of shoreline cleanups across the United States in recent years, volunteers logged each piece of litter they pulled from the edges of lakes, rivers and beaches into a global database. One of the most common entries? Plastic bags. But in places throughout the United States where plastic bags require a fee or have been banned, fewer bags end up at the water's edge, according to research published this week in Science.

Lightweight and abundant, thin plastic bags often slip out of trash cans and recycling bins, travel in the wind and end up in bodies of water, where they pose serious risks to wildlife, which can become entangled or ingest them. They also break down into harmful microplastics, which have been found nearly everywhere on Earth. Using data complied by the nonprofit Ocean Conservancy, researchers analyzed results from 45,067 shoreline cleanups between 2016 to 2023, along with a sample of 182 local and state policies enacted to regulate plastic shopping bags between 2017 and 2023. They found areas that adopted plastic bag policies saw a 25 to 47 percent reduction in the share of plastic bag litter on shorelines, when compared with areas without policies. The longer a policy was in place, the greater the reduction.

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[MacMann]

While money is a powerful motivator I'm not seeing that being the case here. The grocery stores still have to buy the bags they put people's groceries into for them to take home. They are offered for free as a courtesy, and likely to keep things efficient since people that are unwilling to bring their own bag or buy a bag from the store will tie things up as they move items one by one into the cart, then again out of the cart one by one once they get to their vehicle. They cost next to nothing to make bu

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[Rinnon]

Then is the issue of the environmental cost of making a bag durable enough to be reused over and over versus the single use bags. How much cotton, nylon, linen, or hemp was consumed to produce that bag, and how long will it last, versus the single use bag? I've heard claims that the reusable bag creates a larger "footprint" than the single use bags. If anyone wishes to dispute that then do not address it to me, I'm not sure I believe it either, I'm not the one making the claim, I'm merely pointing out that claim has been going around.

I've heard this go around as well, and I think a key piece of the puzzle that brings the claim into the realm of fair/believable is the idea that there is a certain number of times that a bag needs to be reused in order to achieve the net energy savings over the use of a cheaper one time use plastic bag. Presumably this number would depend on the bag, but the numbers I see/hear floating around range from 5 - 20 reuses; but that's purely anecdotal, don't quote me on it.

Reusable bags are behavioral momentum conspiracy

[Somervillain]

By making you bring bags, you're more suggestible! Giving small commands make you more likely to obey larger ones. This is well established for special needs children and ABA. If you have a difficult child with a learning disability who doesn't want to do something, ABA therapists will give them a simple command first as part of behavioral momentum [wikipedia.org]. So you want a kid to brush their teeth and they refuse?...try asking them to touch their nose first...then clap their hands...and weirdly enough, they're

I've grown to hate the things

[rsilvergun]

I started bringing reusable bags because they were insulated and it's summer. I keep a handful of the plastic bags from the supermarket around for emergency trash but I find that if I am not consistently bringing my own bags I quickly wind up with way way way more supermarket plastic bags and I can possibly use for emergency trash cans.

They're too thin and flimsy and full of holes to use for anything that has actual garbage in it. I don't eat out very often so the constant grocery trips mean that I end

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[MacMann]

I started bringing reusable bags because they were insulated and it's summer.

I keep a cooler in my SUV for that. When getting groceries I'll put the cold stuff in the cooler to keep it cold on the way home. It also comes in handy as a box to keep small items from rolling about and/or getting lost on the drive home. I keep some shopping bags in the truck for trash, or whatever, but also proper large garbage bags for any of a number of uses (such as an emergency rain coat/poncho).

I don't know how SUV owners put up with the cost of gas when you have an actual commute...

My SUV gets about the same MPG as my previous FWD sedan so the shift wasn't that big of a deal. After

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[ClickOnThis]

You'll get arrested for littering. Find some other way to process your anger. Maybe put them in the bag-recycling bins at Ralph's or Home Depot? That'll teach 'em!

Effective on Maui

[dsgrntlxmply]

I had trips to north shore Maui in 2010 before the Jam. 2011 plastic bag ban there, and again a couple of years after the ban. There were extensive stands of sugar cane near the highway, and these accumulated conspicuously large numbers of bags blown by trade winds into the cane stands. In a subsequent trip a couple of years after the ban, the festoons and tangles of bags were gone. I believe sugar cane growing subsequently stopped (Pu'unene mill closed).

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[ClickOnThis]

Seems strange that Florida allows plastic bags and does not have a problem.

You think Florida doesn't have a problem with plastic bags? You're wrong. [environmentamerica.org] From the article I linked:

“These products make up the majority of the litter collected during cleanups around our state. It doesn’t make sense to ban local governments from trying to create healthier communities for wildlife and residents.” says Environment Florida advocate Mia McCormick.

Hundreds of thousands of pounds of plastic litter and polystyrene foam cups and to-go containers are collected from our beaches, parks and waterways every year through efforts like the Great American Cleanup and the International Coastal Cleanup.

I go to Florida 2-3x a year...you're wrong

[Somervillain]

Want to stop plastic into the ocean, talk to southeast Asia, China, India, and Africa. Seems strange that Florida allows plastic bags and does not have a problem. All this did was take more money from citizens to give to their government so they can have nicer offices and higher salaries. Govern me hard daddy

You're talking about Florida in the United States, right?...because that shithole has a ton of litter all throughout, especially in Central Florida, like along the I-4....much more so than in the communities I live in with bag fees and plastic bag bans. Sorry, your state may be cleaner than the poorest neighborhoods in NYC, maybe some abandoned rustbelt cities or warzone neighborhoods...but that's about it.

NY

[Lehk228]

very noticeable in NY, Since 202 you don't have all the trash stuck at every fence line and wooded area

what about non costal cities?

[PantyChewer]

The citites that are hours away from oceans, how are their bans affecting things? or is it just a cash grab in those situations?