[Summit] Plastic Bags

[Anna Highsmith]

Thank you, Mikaila, for taking the time to write this thorough and
thoughtful response.

I totally agree.

The planet is in crisis, and plastics are a big part of that, but it's
foolish and shortsighted to try to save the planet on the backs of those
already struggling.

Anna
Colonial Rd


On Thu, Mar 29, 2018 at 8:10 AM Mikaila Mariel Lemonik Arthur <
mmlarthur at gmail.com> wrote:

>  From reading the discussion here on plastic bags, it seems to me that
> very few participants actually have a personal experience living as part
> of the population most impacted by this ban. And humans, it seems, are
> not very good at understanding experiences quite different from their
> own. So I thought I'd share, because I actually spent six years living
> as a low-income apartment resident reliant on walking and public transit
> for all my shopping and commuting needs. In my typical daily schedule, I
> left the house in the morning with everything I needed for a whole day
> of work, school, and other obligations, and did not come home until
> evening after completing all my errands. Give the books, papers, tech
> devices, umbrellas, lunch, and other items I had to carry to get through
> my day, I really did not have room for more than maybe one reusable bag
> in my piles. This meant that even though I did own a few reusable bags
> that I had been gifted or obtained for free, I could not use them for my
> regular shopping. I would use them when I made a special trip to the
> store directly from home, but that was not how the bulk of my shopping
> happened. I'd also point out that, in the small apartment I lived in at
> the time, I would not have even had space to store the quantity of
> reusable bags I routinely use now.
>
> I was not in absolute poverty, so I assume I could have handled the 10
> cent fee without going bankrupt, but it would have cut into other things
> eventually. But there are other cost factors you may not be thinking of.
> First of all, I reused every plastic bag I got, except the ones with
> giant holes. Most frequently, I reused them in my kitchen garbage can to
> collect and dispose of my trash. Buying trash bags can easily cost more
> than 10 cents a bag, especially for those who have transit, space, or
> income limitations preventing the purchase of large quantities. If you
> are using even one bag a day, which I would think is pretty typical
> (those caring for kids, elderly people, or the disabled who use diapers
> and other similar products may go through many, many more), that's going
> to cost you about $40 a year, maybe more. You may not think that is very
> much, but for people living in poverty, a $40 increase in costs could
> affect their ability to survive.
>
> Second of all, the hygiene issue does mean that reusable bags need to be
> laundered frequently, especially for people who buy meat and seafood.
> When you live in an apartment and are dependent on pay laundry with
> small machines, extra laundry can be another really significant expense.
> It can be well over $3 per load of laundry, plus more for the dryer (if
> your bags are even the type that can go in the dryer--and having to hang
> dry things you wash in a laundromat is extremely difficult to manage).
> If you actually followed the recommendation to wash bags after each use,
> that might add several more dollars in cost every week. It's also worth
> pointing out that grocery delivery services, which are the only way I
> could manage to obtain bulk or heavy items when I did not have a car,
> often package items in plastic bags (and are unlikely to stop due to
> hygiene reasons--the proposed ordinance did not, as someone pointed out,
> cover produce bags, or for that matter any bags other than those used at
> checkout).
>
> Continuing to permit free paper bags with handles would reduce some of
> the problems with the ban. Paper bags do eventually biodegrade, as I've
> seen while raking up the winter's leaf piles in my own yard this March.
> They can be made of recycled paper and easily recycled themselves, and
> can easily be carried. However, they are not a complete solution. First
> of all, they cannot be reused as trash bags, at least in normal kitchen
> garbage cans or in any circumstance where you need to tie your trash
> closed. Second of all, they fall apart in the rain quite quickly, and
> people do still need to shop in the rain. Finally, as someone who
> grocery shops by bicycle pointed out to me, you can't hang them from
> your handlebars (or tie them to your child's stroller). It seems to me
> in an age of forks and cups made from corn or sugar cane that you can
> throw in the compost, we ought to be able to produce an alternative to
> plastic bags that still fills people's needs.
>
> If your response to this is that I just don't understand and need some
> education and skill building, then you need to learn some empathy. As I
> said, I owned reusable bags when did not have a car, and used them when
> I could manage. What changed for me? Well, now I own a house, with
> enough room for an entire hamper to store my bags. And I have a laundry
> machine in the same room as that closet. And I shop via car. I bet I
> contributed a whole lot less to the destruction of the earth when I
> shopped on foot and got plastic bags which I reused in my trash than I
> do now burning gas stuck in traffic in a city which does not provide
> convenient point-to-point public transit.
> --
> Mikaila Mariel Lemonik Arthur
> mmlarthur at gmail.com <mailto:mmlarthur at gmail.com>
>
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