Bag Ban

Oregon Plastic Bag Ban

Oregonians use 1.7 billion plastic checkout bags every year, which equals to 500 bags a consumer. Plastic bags are Oregon's number one item of plastic pollution and12% of Oregon beach litter. Wasteful practice is why a coalition of environment-friendly citizens, communities, businesses, and environmental groups are working to ban plastic checkout bags in Oregon. Switching from plastic bags to reusable bags will help promote recycling, cost less, and improve the environment. Oregon grocers and environmental groups are lining up behind the statewide ban on single-use plastic checkout bags aimed at cutting plastic litter and boosting Oregon’s paper bag makers (Learn, 2010).

The cost of plastic bags is low, but these bags are recycled less, and littered more. The result is that bag’s final destination is in landfills or along Oregon beaches. The estimated time for a single plastic bag to biodegrade in a landfill is 1,000 years and plastic bags carried across states by the winds take about 20 years to biodegrade (Six Wise, 2010). Opponents of plastic bag bans, including American Chemistry Council, are likely to sue if a ban passes. They say claims of damage from plastic bags are blow out of proportion and communities can do more to recycle them to keep them out of landfills and oceans by simply returning them to stores for recycling (Learn, 2010). The problem is that consumers either do not remember to take them or forget that plastic bags are recyclable. Environmental group like the ban’s potential to cut litter that never goes away.

Oregon state lawmakers proposed legislation banning disposable plastic bags at all retailers throughout the state starting in 2012. “The ban would apply to all other retailers, including department stores, and convenience stores” (Learn, 2010, para. 5). The proposal would also bar local governments from enacting self-styled bans, as Portland considered earlier this year. Exemptions to the proposal would include...