Ban the Bag!
Senate Bill 536 bans single-use plastic bags at retail checkouts in Oregon.
A broad, bipartisan coalition that includes more than 400 Oregon businesses is working to pass SB 536. It's sponsored by Senators Mark Hass (D) and Jason Atkinson (R), and Reps. Ben Cannon (D) and Vic Gilliam (R).
Check out the Medford Mail Tribune's endorsement of SB 536.
Read a great summary of why banning plastic bags is good for Oregon in the Oregonian.
Plastic bags kill marine life.
Oregonians use an estimated 1.7 billion plastic checkout bags every year*. Plastic pollution has become a critical problem in our oceans, accounting for as much as 90 percent of the estimated 100 million tons of toxic trash that spirals 500 miles off the Oregon Coast. Plastic bags comprise nearly seven percent of the garbage on our beaches.
Plastic never biodegrades; it only photo-degrades into smaller and smaller bits, strangling, suffocating and poisoning sea life, including whales, fish and birds.
Plastic bags cost taxpayers millions.
In addition, plastic bags cost municipalities around the state millions of taxpayer dollars in sewer maintenance and recycling facility repair (pictured right: plastic bags jamming sorting equipment at Far West Fibers in Portland, courtesy Clackamas County).
Plastic bags profits go to out-of-state corporations.
Less than ten percent of the some 3.8 million tons of plastic “bags, sacks and wraps” waste generated in the US in 2009 was recycled. There are currently no plastics manufacturing or recycling facilites in Oregon. But some 60 percent of the paper bags used at retail checkouts in Oregon are made right here in the state.
Read a blog from OLCV Executive Director Jon Isaacs about how banning plastic bags protects Oregon jobs. From the blog:
"Trusted Oregon grocers like Fred Meyer and New Seasons voluntarily stopped offering plastic bags as part of their commitment to sustainable business. And the Northwest Grocery Association and Oregon United Food and Commerical Workers Local 555 agree that banning plastic bags, offering paper and accelerating the switch to reusable bags is good for Oregon business."
Banning the bag will save taxpayers and businesses money
More than 400 business (and counting) from around the state support Senate Bill 536, and it's part of the Oregon Business Association's 2011 Legislative Agenda.
Municipalites around the state, including Beaverton, Cannon Beach, Lake Oswego, Metro Regional Government, Newport, Portland, Tillamook, and West Linn, have passed resolutions that support this state legislation. (Click on the city to read a news story about the resolution passed there.)
Banning the bag is a critical step toward cleaning up our oceans.
Plastic bags are a top item of plastic litter on Oregon’s beaches.
Plastic litter kills an estimated one million sea birds and 100,000 marine mammals each year.
- Sea Turtles mistake plastic bags for jellyfish, one of their main food sources. A recent study of dead Adriatic loggerhead sea turtles found one third had eaten plastic.
- When plastic bags sink to the ocean floor, they remain intact for decades. Whales swallow the bags while foraging for food and the bags get stuck in their gut.
- Storks and other sea birds get their heads caught in plastic bags
- Plastic absorbs toxic chemicals up to a million times the ambient seawater concentrations. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is studying whether fish are poisoned by the toxic plastic and the extent to which the toxins move up the food chain.
More than 30 organizations and coalitions around the state support Senate Bill 536, including.
Oregon Conservation Network, Association of Oregon Recyclers, Audubon Society of Portland, Environment Oregon, Recycling Advocates, Surfrider Foundation, Tualatin Riverkeepers, Willamette Riverkeeper, and 5 Gyres Project
plus:
Alliance for Democracy, Association of Northwest Steelheaders, The Central Oregon Environmental Center, Columbia Gorge Earth Center, Columbia Riverkeeper, Food & Water Watch, Friends of the Columbia Gorge, Friends of Forest Park, Gifford Pinchot Task Force, Hood River Valley Residents Committee, Mazamas, National Wildlife Federation, Native Fish Society, Northwest Environmental Defense Center, Oceana, Oregon Business Association, Oregon Natural Desert Association, Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition, Oregon Environmental Council, Oregon Wild, Port Orford Ocean Resource Team, Rachel's Friends Breast Cancer Coalition, SCRAP, Sea Turtle Restoration Project, Sea Turtles Forever, SEE Turtles, Sierra Club, Columbia Chapter of Oregon, Southeast Neighbors (Eugene), Sullivan's Gulch Neighborhood Association (Portland), Vernon Neighborhood Association (Portland), Western Pulp and Paper Workers
* Royte, Elizabeth. Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash. Little, Brown and Company, 2005.