HomeMy WebLinkAboutPlastic Shopping Bags Ban letter On Banning Plastic Shopping Bags RECEIVED
By AUG 1 2 2014
William W. Schriever
Southold Town Clerk
When the environmentalists mounted a similar campaign to ban plastic shopping bags two years
ago,the alternative then being considered were Kraft paper bags without handles about 17 inches
high, 12 inches long, and 6.5 inches wide. I wrote a two-page document, "On Banning Plastic
Shopping Bags" dated July 31, 2012, expressing my objections to banning plastic shopping bags
and pointing out their many advantages both for the merchants and for the customers. The
alternative now being considered are reusable cloth shopping bags with handles. In this
document I will discuss the relative merits of these two alternatives in that order.
The Benefits To The Customer Of Using Plastic Shopping Bags
I am adamantly opposed to banning plastic shopping bags in the Village of Greenport, in the
Town of Southold or in the County of Suffolk. I am almost 88 years old and when I walk I need
to use a cane to avoid stumbling and falling. So I have only one hand available to carry my
grocery bags. I need two arms to lift and to carry one paper grocery bag and yet I can carry two
or more plastic grocery bags with one hand. These plastic grocery bags provide me with the
handles that I need to live independently.
My car is garaged a long way from my apartment. I use the handles of the plastic bags to hang
the grocery bags on my electric wheelchair so that I can carry the groceries to my apartment by
myself. With paper bags I must load the groceries into a push cart and then find someone to
deliver it to my apartment. As I have said, the plastic bags are essential to allow me to live
independently.
As reported in the July 12, 2012, issue of The Suffolk Times, Ms. Van Buren said of the plastic
bags, "You use it once and it's trash. The only good second use for the bags is picking up dog
waste, she said." As reported in the July 24, 2014, issue of The Suffolk Times, Bill Toedter,
president of the North Fork Environmental Council, said "the average lifespan of a single-use
plastic bag is just twelve minutes, after which they are likely to break or tear and end up being
discarded." Of course, neither of these statements of fact is true. These are the hyperbole that
environmentalists use to shut off any discussion of the facts.
I recycle and reuse all of my plastic grocery bags. After I remove the groceries, I hold each bag
up to a bright light to determine whether the bag has any holes in it. Those that are without any
holes I pack into one large storage bag, the others I tie in a knot to identify them and pack them
into another large storage bag.
Those without holes I use to line a plastic wastebasket that I maintain to collect and to dispose of
my kitchen garbage. When it is full I put a plastic wrapper of some sort on top of the garbage
and tie the handles of the plastic bag to package the garbage. A paper grocery bag would not
resist the moisture from the garbage nor does it have the handles needed to tie it closed. Also I
use these plastic bags to store produce in my refrigerator. The bags are relatively sanitary and
they can be disposed of after I have used the contents so that I don't contaminate any new
produce. I tie the handles to keep the contents from spilling in my car and in my refrigerator.
August 12,2014 - I - William W.Schriever
On Banning Plastic Shopping Bags
By
William W. Schriever
The plastic grocery bags that have small holes in them I use to carry and to dispose of recycled
bottles and cans. I also use them to tie up waste paper like discarded mail and magazines for
recycling. When I need to flour meat or fish for-frying, I lay out a plastic bag on the counter to
contain the flour and then I wrap up the soiled flour in the plastic bag for disposal in the garbage.
Thus there is no need to use soap and water for the cleanup.
I carry a plastic bag with me literally every time I leave the apartment. I use it like a brief case to
carry my business papers, my reading glasses, my checkbook and anything else that I may need
on my trip. The handles allow me to carry my things in one hand without dropping them. And I
use the plastic bags to pick up my mail and to carry it back to my apartment.
The Benefits To The Business Of Using Plastic Shopping Bags
By far the largest economic impact of outlawing the use of plastic grocery bags would occur at
the cash register at checkout. The plastic shopping bags are held in dispenser that opens and
holds the plastic bags ready to receive the groceries. Kraft paper bags and reusable cloth bags
must be picked up individually, opened and held upright to receive the groceries. I estimate that
giving up the use of the dispensers would literally double the time at the register for everyone,
customer and clerk alike. The merchants would need to increase the number of registers and to
hire many more employees for the same volume of business and the cost would be passed along
in higher food costs for everyone. Those depending on food stamps would receive even less to
eat.
One alternative to the plastic shopping bags are the Kraft paper bags. As reported in the July 24,
2014, issue of The Suffolk Times, Charles Reichert, owner of the Southold and Greenport IGA
stores, "noted that the cost of the paper bags is almost eight times the cost of single-use plastic
bags." Of course, costs will depend on the quality of the bags and the volume purchased. The
paper bags used by the IGA are made of heavy-weight paper, perhaps a bit stronger than normal.
Then there is the cost of shipping the bags to the grocery store and then trucking the waste to the
landfill. I weighed the plastic shopping bags and the Kraft paper bags used by the IGA. The
plastic bags weigh 0.20 oz. each, the paper bags weigh 2.3 oz. each, eleven times as much. An
oz. is one-sixteenth of a pound or 28.35 grams. And the volume of waste ultimately sent to the
landfill is probably eleven times as much since the densities of plastic and paper are comparable.
The Benefits To The Environment Claimed By The Environmentalists
The primary purpose of a law banning plastic shopping bags is to eliminate plastic bags from the
environment. However, because the Kraft paper bags and the reusable cloth bags cannot be used
to collect and package the garbage or to store produce in the refrigerator, the customer will
purchase additional plastic bags to replace the plastic shopping bags that would have been
recycled for those uses. The purchased bags are made of heavier-weight and more durable
plastic so they will retain their strength much longer if released into the environment. For
August 12,2014 - 2 - William W.Schriever
On Banning Plastic Shopping Bags
By
William W. Schriever
example, a one-gallon Ziplock storage bag weighs 0.35 oz. and yet a plastic shopping bag of
even greater capacity weighs only 0.20 oz. Thus a law banning plastic shopping bags not only
will fail to achieve its objective of removing plastic bags from the environment, but it will add
substantially to the waste ultimately sent to the landfill.
As reported in the July 24, 2014, issue of The Suffolk Times, Bill Toedter, president of the North
Fork Environmental Council, said "once disposed of, plastic bags take anywhere from 20 to
1,000 years to break down." The environmentalists want us to believe that once these plastic
bags are released into the environment they will be there forever. But that is not true. The
plastic loses its strength rapidly when it is exposed to the ultraviolet rays of the sun so any bags
loose in the environment will soon disintegrate. Keeping plastic bags out of the environment is
no different than keeping any other trash out of the environment. This is more of the hyperbole
that environmentalists use to shut off any discussion of the facts.
As reported in the July 29, 2014, issue of Newsday, Dieter von Lehsten, co-chairman of the
Sustainable Southampton Green Advisory Committee, said "the problem is that these bags never
leave the environment. They only break down into smaller particles." Although he doesn't say
so, the implication is that paper bags disappear when they biodegrade. Apparently the
environmentalists want to rewrite the laws of physics, too. In any physical, chemical or
biological process, the total mass remains constant— we say "mass is conserved"— except in the
conversion of mass to energy in the nuclear fusion that powers the sun and the nuclear fission
that powers the nuclear reactors in our power plants.
The Harm To The Environment Ignored By The Environmentalists
One environmental impact of the banning of plastic shopping bags would be the additional cost
of the fuel needed to ship the much heavier paper bags to the stores and to truck the heavier
kitchen waste to the landfill. The burning of this additional fuel would increase the discharge of
carbon dioxide, CO2, a greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere which the environmentalists argue is
the cause global warming.
When the paper bags in the landfill biodegrade, methane, CH4, a much more potent greenhouse
gas, is released. As reported by the EPA on their website, "Pound for pound, the comparative
impact of CH4 on climate change is over 20 times greater than CO2 over a 100-year period."
Methane is considered to be such a serious pollutant that the operator of a landfill is required to
cap the landfill and to collect the methane from under the cap. This methane can be burned as a
fuel or simply burned directly in the atmosphere to convert it to carbon dioxide. When paper
bags biodegrade they pollute the atmosphere with greenhouse gases that environmentalists
consider to be harmful to the environment. On a short-term basis, the fact that the paper bags are
biodegradable should be considered a liability, not an asset.
Nor are there any long-term benefits to using shopping bags that are biodegradable. When a
customer who is given paper shopping bags returns home with her groceries, she transfers the
August 12,2014 - 3 - William W.Schriever
On Banning Plastic Shopping Bags
By
William W. Schriever
fresh meat and produce into new plastic bags and places them in the refrigerator. At that point
she has two choices: (1) Fold the paper bags carefully and place them in the recycle bin; (2)
Discard the paper bags in the trash with the garbage. In the first instance, only fresh, clean paper
can be recycled. The fact that the bags are biodegradable is of no consequence. In the second
instance, because "mass is conserved" in the landfill, the weight and volume of the paper bags
remains essentially undiminished as it biodegrades. For all practical purposes the landfill does
not shrink as it ages although it may settle a little if it compacts under its own weight. Plastic
shopping bags are actually better for the environment because they take up less space in the
landfill and because they do not biodegrade and release methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
The Risks That Reusable Cloth Shopping Bags Pose To Our Health
Environmentalists are recommending passage of a law banning plastic shopping bags and
perhaps including other incentives such as charging for paper bags in the expectation that
grocery shoppers will bring their own reusable cloth shopping bags to the store to be filled by the
clerk at the register. Imagine the number of cloth bags that would be needed to pack and carry a
shopping cart full of food. The clerk at the register must select each bag from the pile on the
checkout counter, unfold it, open it up, hold it open with one hand and fill the bag with the other
hand. Previously, I estimated that giving up the use of the dispensers that open and hold the
plastic bags ready to receive the groceries would literally double the time at the register for
everyone, customer and clerk alike. The merchants would need to increase the number of
registers and to hire many more employees for the same volume of business and the cost would
be passed along in higher food costs for everyone. That is especially true for the reusable cloth
shopping bags.
These cloth shopping bags are not sanitary like the plastic and paper shopping bags. Mold will
have been growing on the food particles and stains that remain in the bags from the previous use.
The outside of the bags may be contaminated with bacteria and viruses. And insects that like to
hide in the dark like cockroaches and bed bugs may have crawled into the bags to await another
meal. Reviewing the scenario above, note that the cloth bags were carried all over the store in
the shopping cart, contaminating the shopping cart and all of the food that the customer handled
in the course of making her selection. At checkout, the reused cloth shopping bags are dragged
all over the countertop at the register. Mold spores are scattered everywhere including all over
the clerk's hands. When the cloth bags are opened, the cockroaches and bed bugs will be
exposed to the light and they will flee to the nearest hiding place. The cockroaches may choose
to hide in the food or under the counter but the bed bugs will prefer to jump on the customers
nearby. When the clerk makes change, the money will be contaminated with the mold spores,
bacteria and viruses brought into the store in the reusable cloth shopping bags. All of the
customers will leave the store with their food contaminated with mold spores and their shopping
bags covered with bacteria and viruses. A few of the customers may be carrying home
cockroaches and bed bugs to wreak havoc with their lives. That seems to me like an enormous
price to pay to save a few plastic shopping bags. I hope the merchants will have sense enough
to refuse to participate in the reuse of the cloth shopping bags.
August 12,2014 - 4 - William W.Schriever
On Banning Plastic Shopping Bags
By
William W. Schriever
Some Scientific Studies Done To Better Define The Risks
As reported in the January 6, 2014, issue of USA Today, "A 2011 study from scientists at the
University of Arizona and Loma Linda University found only 3% of shoppers with multi-use
bags said they regularly washed them. The same study found bacteria in 99%of bags tested; half
carried coliform bacteria while 8% carried E. coli, an indicator of fecal contamination. `I
classify them as pretty dirty things, like the bottom of your shoes,' said Ryan Sinclair of Loma
Linda University School of Public Health, a co-author of the study."
"He is finalizing another study he hopes to publish soon looking at how pathogens spread
through grocery stores with the help of reusable bags. The study, conducted at a central
California grocery store in early 2013, involved spraying bags with a bacteria not harmful to
humans but transported in a similar way to norovirus, a leading cause of gastrointestinal disease
linked to more than 19 million illnesses each year in the United States. The tracer bacteria was
detected in high concentrations on shopping carts, at the checkout counter and on food items
shoppers had touched but kept on the shelf. Sinclair said the contamination cycle often began
right after the shoppers entered the store and placed their bags in the bottom or the baby carrier
of a shopping cart, two places notorious for germs. `The baby carrier portion of the grocery cart
is the most contaminated public surface you ever come in contact with,' he said."
"But Sinclair doesn't think habits about washing the bags are changing much in the years since
the study he helped create was published. The researchers found that bacteria thrived and
multiplied on bags stored in the trunks of cars and that machine or hand washing reduced
bacteria on bags by more than 99.9%. A separate study published in 2012 traced a norovirus
outbreak among a girls' soccer team from Oregon to a reusable bag stored in a hotel bathroom
used by an ill team member."
Protecting Wildlife From The Release Of Trash In The Environment
I assume that the practice of disposing of municipal waste by dumping it from barges into the
coastal waters is drawing to an end. And I believe that ships at sea now carry their waste ashore
instead of dumping it overboard. Even if a plastic shopping bag is part of the waste it does not
create a unique problem. The only solution is to ban the dumping of the waste into the ocean.
It is true that plastic bottles and other plastic waste float on the surface of the water and
eventually end up on a beach somewhere. But so do tree limbs and construction materials made
of wood or foam or other materials that float. So the beaches will have to be cleaned in any case,
whether or not there are a few plastic items among the debris. Plastic shopping bags do have one
property that is unique; they have handles in which wildlife could become entangled. I believe it
might be helpful to cut open or to cut off the handles or to tie the plastic shopping bags in a knot
before disposing of them if there is any chance they will be released into the environment.
August 12,2014 - 5 - William W.Schriever
On Banning Plastic Shopping Bags
By
William W. Schriever
Conclusion: Such A Law Will Produce No Benefits To The Environment
A law banning plastic shopping bags will not achieve even its primary objective of removing
plastic bags from the environment. Substituting Kraft paper bags as the alternative will pollute
the atmosphere with greenhouse gasses which the environmentalists argue will increase global
warming. Substituting reusable cloth shopping bags as the alternative will create a public health
disaster by spreading mold spores, bacteria and viruses throughout the community. Also
reusable cloth shopping bags can act as vectors to carry cockroaches and bed bugs from one
home to another. What is really needed is a law banning the reuse of cloth shopping bags in
grocery stores.
The economic benefits of plastic shopping bags are substantial. Plastic shopping bags are the
least expensive shopping bags to purchase. They can be loaded into a dispenser that opens and
holds the bags ready to receive the groceries which speeds the checkout at the register. The
handles allow the bags to be picked up and carried with one hand which is helpful for everyone
but especially for the handicapped. Because plastic shopping bags weigh the least, they are the
least expensive to ship to the grocery and to truck to the landfill and they take up the least room
in the landfill. They are the most sanitary so they protect the health and the productivity of the
family and minimize the expense of medical treatment.
Why is the community even considering banning plastic shopping bags? Whatever the reason,
whether it is true or not, it fades into insignificance when compared to the environmental and
economic benefits of continuing to use the plastic shopping bags. They are the latest technology.
They were developed to save money and natural resources and we cannot afford not to use them.
August 12, 2014 9ftwi liam W. Schriever
1500 Brecknock Rd. #202
Greenport,NY 11944
631-477-9009
August 12,2014 - 6 - William W.Schriever