No Plastic

   After hearing the news that Toronto has decided to ban plastic bags there has been some arguments made on both sides.  Those that are against the plastic bag spit out the usual reasons that I was fed in elementary school.  Here is what we know, plastic bags take a long time to decompose, they are dangerous to wildlife when littered, they require the use of petroleum to create them.

 

Although these points are valid it does seem that people think that a ban on plastic bags has solved the problem.  Actually, it makes no difference.  Why is that?  Well when plastic bags are taken away as the prize for spending money they are typically re-used or thrown out.  Now anyone with a dog would be holding on to these bags and normally when you enter their home you will see a vat of these scrunched bags sitting near a doorway so they are easily accessible to the designated dog walker.  Or they are used to line garbage bins in the kitchen or bathroom or they are used to hold the waste from small messes outside or inside as they are a convenient size.

 

We now have the bags eliminated and the yearly cost to an average household would look something like the following: Small Garbage Bags at $3.50/36 bags, Animal Waste bags at $10.00/220 bags.  So now let us take a look at the yearly cost this ban has made at this point.  We can easily say that if the household has an animal they should be walked twice a day and there is 365 days in a year.  This makes the cost $10.00 x 3 (660 bags for year) is $30.00/year.  So far this is not bad and negligible.  For the small bags there is  an average of 3 bathrooms and 1 kitchen in each household.  This will make a total 52 weeks a year where the garbage is changed weekly.  This translates to the following equation 52 x 4 = 208 bags for the year.  So let us get the cost where 208/36 = 5.8 or 6.  We will take 6 x $3.50 = $21.00/year to purchase bags for the household garbage bins.  This means that the financial impact is low on removing bags but has anyone noticed that through this whole thing we were agreeing with these amounts and not saying “I don’t use plastic bags.”

 

So we have  an increase in cost per household, but it is negligible.  For the whole year it averages out to $51.00/year with a pet.  Now this can increase or decrease based on the price that is paid per bag.  The best part was that through a bag ban they still have not reduced the amount of bags that are going to landfills or recycling programs.  Well, actually I have a feeling that if the bags are purchased they will more than likely go to the landfill rather than the recycling program.  They are looked upon as a purchased item and not a donated item.  See the ban has removed the marketing thought that I, the store, am giving you back something for being a patron to my store.  We then have a feeling of necessity to recycle or handle this free product, but when purchased the sentiment seems to be screw you I have paid for it so life should be easy.

 

There is the one argument, now for the re-usable bags.  Good idea but still end up in landfills as they do not last forever.  So if they end up in landfills, how long do they take to decompose?