Arcata plastic bags

Template:ENGR308inprogress

This is a research project in partnership between Engr308 Technology and the Environment and the City of Arcata, during Fall 2010, to explore the reasons for and effects of a single use plastic ban bag would have in Arcata, Humboldt County.

Teams

Please list your team name, lab # and team member names (with user pages linked) here, as follows:

• Baggybusters, Lab #1
  • Heather Weiche, Josh Mull, Andrew Cox, William Matsubu

• Civil Revolution, Lab #2
  • Andrew Demos, TEAM MEMBER NAME, TEAM MEMBER NAME, TEAM MEMBER NAME

• Viva el Cambio, Lab #1
  • Amanda Gates, Kyle McManus, Kyle Garvey

• 1+1=3, Lab #1
  • Jesus Orozco-Manzo, James Bailey III, Jeremy Rude, Jeremy Battles

• Plasticizers, Lab 2
  • Lynette Villagomez, Kyle Morgan, Toby Haskett, Timothy Davidson

• Mad Baggers, Lab 1
  • Danielle Ballard, Caleb Fowler

• Canvas Revolution, Lab 1
  • Mia Bertagnolli, Daniel Jones, Omar Garcia, Desiree Perez

• Petroleum Power Rangers, Lab 2
  • Richard Bassler, Stuart Jones, Erin Haugen, Hilary Hutchison

• Steel Bagnolias, Lab 2
  • Cassandra Mill, Nick Conforti,TEAM MEMBER NAME

Review

Make sure not to plagiarize. Use the format of subsections (four = signs in this case) on various topics and references using footnotes^[1]. Do not editorialize. Just paraphrase what you learn.

Click the edit tab for your section.

Existing programs in other locations - Lab 1

In California, Malibu, San Francisco, Palo Alto, and Fairfax all ban single use, plastic bags. Just this year, lawmakers shot down a ban on single use plastic bags statewide. Elsewhere, Washington D.C. requires a charge to use grocery bags, while North Carolina banned single use and non-recyclable plastic bags in the Outer Banks. [1]

In January, bans take effect in Maui and Kauai, Hawaii, Brownsville, Texas, and February brings about a ban in American Samoa. Bans are already in place in Westport, Connecticut; Bethel, Alaska; and Edmonds, Washington. There are also campaigns to ban Plastic bags in half a dozen other California cities and counties, including San Jose and L.A. [2]

However, in the last 2 years, 11 states have attempted to ban single use plastic bags, and none of them succeeded. Seattle, Washington attempted to pass a tax on each bag used, but was voted down when it was put to voters. [3]

Existing programs in other locations - Lab 2

• County of Maui ^[2]
  • Siting unsightly litter, additional burden on landfills as well as the potential death of marine animals for reasons to enact a plastic bag ban.

• Malibu Plastic Bag Ban
  • This Banning of single use plastic bags was put forward by presentations by local students and representatives from environmental groups on Monday, May, 12, 2008. This was followed by unanimously approval from the City Council. ^[3] Ordinance 323 was adopted May 27, 2008 and effective December 27, 2008. On the latter day Grocery Stores, Food Vendors, Restaurants, Pharmacies, and City facilities were mandated to comply. The rest of the remaining Retail and Commercial businesses were required to comply on June, 27, 2009.^[4]

• Baltimore

• City of Chicago ^[5]
  • A plastic bag recycling ordinance was created July 19, 2010 to encourage waste diversion by recycling single use bags at stores.

• San Fransisco, CA
  • A single use plastic bag ban was enacted in March of 2007 by the city of San Fransisco. Leading the way for many other bay area cities. Such as ****

• City of San Jose, CA
  • A single use plastic bag restriction is being considered. Still allowing the use of 40% recycled plastic bags. Currently you can purchase a bag for 10 cents, but expect an increase to 25 cents in two years 2012-2013. ^[6]

• City of Brownsville, Texas ^[7]
  • A voluntary bag ban is encouraged untill the date of January 1, 2011 when a plastic bag ban will be enforced. This ordinance also widens city ordinances to include litter, the start of cleaning up a town.

Existing research in plastic bags - Lab 1

• Lots of data regarding carbon, water and other values one would find in an LCA.

Environmental Impacts

The carbon footprint of plastic (LDPE or PET, poyethylene) is about 6 kg CO² per kg of plastic. Give a few more details... especially the assumptions. ^[8]

Studies have been done in major cities across the globe to determine the impacts of one-time use plastic carryout bags on the environment. Here is the data from one such study completed in Los Angeles County in 2009. ^[9]

Data is provided by Ecobilan, which is "a department of PricewaterhouseCoopers that provides analysis of the environmental performance of products and services prepared a comprehensive LCA in 2004 that shows the impacts of paper carryout bags, reusable low-density polyethylene plastic bags, and plastic carryout bags made of high-density polyethylene upon the emission of various air pollutants such as VOCs, NO_x, CO, SO_x." ^{[9] [10]}

In this section, emissions related to plastic carry-out bags are compared to those of paper carry-out bags

Emissions Sources Air Pollutant Emissions (Pounds/Day)	VOCs	NOx	CO	SOx	Particulates
Emissions attributed to the 67 stores in the unincorporated territory of Los Angeles County (assuming 10,000 plastic carryout bags used per day per store)	87	62	111	54	44
Emissions attributed to the 462 stores in the incorporated cities of Los Angeles County (assuming 10,000 plastic carryout bags used per day per store)	601	429	764	371	304
Total emissions	688	492	874	425	348

Emissions Sources Air Pollutant Emissions (Pounds/Day)	VOCs	NOx	CO	SOx	Particulates
Emissions attributed to the 67 stores in the unincorporated territory of Los Angeles County (assuming 6,836 paper carryout bags used per day per store)2	450	1,150	148	414	75
Emissions attributed to the 462 stores in the incorporated cities of Los Angeles County (assuming 6,836 paper carryout bags used per day per store)2	601	429	764	371	304
Total emissions	515	1,317	169	473	86

Existing research in plastic bags - Lab 2

Efficacy of other programs and campaigns - Lab 1

• There may be some overlap with the existing programs team, but focus on programs and campaigns that have been evaluated for effectiveness.

Irish Bag Ban

This article talks about the Irish ban and lists some other countries' programs you might want to look into- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2205419.stm

China Bag Ban

San Francisco Bag Ban

Describe it. ^[11].

Outcomes. ^[12].

Pros and Cons or Lessons learned. ^[13].

Los Angeles Bag Thing

Describe it. ^[14].

Outcomes. ^[15].

Pros and Cons or Lessons learned. ^[16].

Efficacy of other programs and campaigns - Lab 2

• There may be some overlap with the existing programs team, but focus on programs and campaigns that have been evaluated for effectiveness.

Challenges - Lab 1

Plastic bag bans in San Francisco and other areas have resulted in most people simply switching to paper bags. It has also resulted in law suits, and in Oakland the ban was overturned by plastic industry plaintiffs who argued that a plastic-only ban was illegal since there were no studies on the effects of increased paper bag usage. This illustrates that "plastic-only bans have proved vulnerable to legal challenges," and that if the end-state is supposed to be a complete shift to reusable bags, then there is no reason to leave paper bags out of a bag ban, especially since it renders the ban legally unstable.^[17]

• Laws, SIGs, etc.

Challenges - Lab 2

• Laws, SIGs, etc.

Environmental Justice issues - Lab 1

• Health effects, secondary effects, other issues.

Environmental Justice issues - Lab 2

• Health effects, secondary effects, other issues.

Who is working on this in Humboldt

• If you come across programs, individuals or organizations already going on in Humboldt. Please list them here.

References

Template:Reflist