An article from the Toronto
Sun that quickly caught my attention was one called, "It's About Time
the Plastic Bag Ban Heated Up" by Sue-Anne Levy. It was about how
Toronto's city counsel voted to ban plastic bags there starting January 1st, 2013
to help reduce the amount of plastic waste and to help start eliminate the
environmental issue that causes such a problem. However, multiple groups such
as the Canadian Plastics Industry Association and the Ontario Convenience
Stores Association threaten to take Toronto
to court because they believe the ban was adopted without proper thought or
consultation. The writer said, "He certainly wasn't thinking of the ramifications
of a ban on those who make a living from plastic bags or those who rely on plastics
bags at point-of-purchase -- let alone inviting a possible legal
challenge". She's right, the counsel wasn't thinking about all the people
who make their money off of plastic bags, or what we will hold our garbage or
pick up dog poop with when they passed the ban, or even what stores will do
when all they have been using to bag things with is plastic, not paper. Since those groups threatened to take them to court, the
counsel has to vote whether or not they want to reopen the ban. Either
the counsel can undo it, or it could possibly be undone in court.
I personally think that if the city counsel or the person
who had come up with the plastic bag ban in the first place had thought harder
about what people could use in replace of plastic bags, the matter would of
gone over more smoothly. You can't just expect people to stop using plastic
bags all together right off the bat, there are way too many different forms of
plastic bags that we humans use daily. If they had started it out at an
obtainable place instead of having such high expectations, such as just banning
a certain type of plastic bag at first, like grocery bags, I think more people
would of been open to trying that idea to help reduce the waste. In my biology
class I learned from watching "The Lorax" that if people don't intervene
and take action then the environment will just keep on getting polluted and
spoiled. I know there are a lot of cons to banning plastic bags, but we need to
start somewhere now before it gets any worse! I'm not saying that it would be
easy, with good comes bad. It would be good for the environment, but bad for a
lot of people who make their money off of those bags.
PHOTO CITE: 2008. Photograph. The Environmental EZine. By Charles Moffat. Feb. 2008. Web. 4 Oct. 2012. <http://environmental.lilithezine.com/The-War-on-Plastic-Bags.html>.
Kaitlyn, your article really grabbed my attention just from the title. You brought up some really interesting points. I agree with you that you can't just expect people to stop using plastic bags all together. Maybe, we should slowly start to eliminate the use of plastic bags instead of all at once, so that people can adjust to it. I personally believe that plastic bags are never going to be completely banned. They have too many purposes, but hopefully the use of them can be greatly reduced. Aren't paper bags just as bad to the environment as plastic bags are? There is a website called "One Bag at a Time" that sells reusable bags. If people started to bring their own bags to stores, it could greatly help the environment. I really enjoyed reading your blog post, great job!
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that regulation should be put into place to ban or limit the use of plastic bags, as they can harm the environment in a variety of ways. If they reach the ocean, they can be consumed by sea creatures and harm them. However, I agree that such a drastic move as to ban could be received with a lot of opposition, thought I think it’s a good idea. What makes more sense, in my opinion, is to require customers to pay for plastic bags, and get rewarded when they use reusable bags.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that they can not expect people to completely stop using plastic bags at once, since there are so many uses to them. I think that if everyone could stop using plastic bags that it would be great, but it is unlikely to happen in a short period of time. Also getting rid of plastic bags would have both a positive and negative affect. If plastic bags were not used than people who make their money from plastic bags will no longer have a way to gain money. On the other hand, if plastic bags were not used than it would be one way to keep the oceans cleaner, since a lot of plastic bags end up in the sea. Overall, I think that plastic bags would be both a good and a bad thing to get try to get rid of.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with the author of this article's point of view. Charging for plastic bags makes sense, if not banning them altogether. Although there would have to be intermediate steps, such as banning certain types, like you said, it would eventually be a good place to reach. I agree with your opinions on the topic.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that it would be very difficult to just stop using plastic bags all together but something does have to be done. I think it would have a very negative effect on businesses that make and sell the plastic bags so it is hard to take a side. I think one thing that could be helpful if plastic bags were banned is if people used the reusable bags that you can buy for a dollar instead of paper bags. To make paper bags you have to cut down trees so if we didn’t cut down as many trees and cut out paper bags as a whole that would be a lot more helpful for the environment.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Simone in that we should take the step to eliminate paper bags first. We need to slowly work our way to ending the use of plastic bags for good. They have so many uses, that of course most people wont be completely on board with the ban. We should try to inform them on other materials they can use as more "green" substitutes. This will help make the adjustment easier, and hopefully more successful than cutting them out all together.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on what you said about how difficult it would be to completely ban paper bags. I also agree with Liz, because I personally don't think that we'll be able to ever completely get rid of plastic bags. We should all try to slowly reduce our daily use of plastic bags, and move towards more environmentally friendly options, such as the reusable bags they sometimes sell at stores. Even if people can't buy the reusable bags, I think they should use the paper bags instead of plastic. Paper is a lot more biodegradable than plastic, and it is better for the environment.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you when you said the company should have thought much harder on banning the bags. Clearly the environment was the biggest concern in this case but the economy is also a big issue. The creator of this law should have thought about the risk of putting the plastic bag company workers out of the job. This could start a revelation with cities. I'm not saying plastic bags are good but it is important to discussion the ripple effect of this act.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it would be extremely difficult to stop using plastic bags altogether. It would be easier if we slowly stopped using plastic bags. Like Simone said everyone could start using the one dollar reusable bags and that would help the environment in two ways. One way it would help is not as many trees would need to be cut down because people wouldn't be using paper bags. And plastic bags wouldn't be littered everywhere anymore. If we banned plastic bags altogether some people make livings from plastic bags. Toronto's city counsel clearly did not think this through.
ReplyDeleteI agree that we have to slowly stop using plastic bags of all kinds, but we need to tell people of what other kinds of materials we should use. We have to inform people on what is the best kind of material we can use in replacement of plastic. Also we can't use paper bags because in my opinion they aren't that much better, because we still have to cut down tree to make them. We also have to consider all the jobs as well. If we ban plastic bags then a lot of company's that make them will go out of business and if companies start to shut down then people will lose their jobs. Banning plastic bags is a very complicated thing and i agree with you that the counsel didn't think this all through.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with you Kaitlyn, that it will be very hard to stop using plastic bags all together, and that we need to start somewhere. I think it would be a good idea to ban plastic bages somehwere like grocery stores first. I think the person's approach who came up with the idea for banning ALL plsatic bags was a little too aggressive. They did not consider people who make a living off of producing plastic bags and I think it is slightly unrealistic to ban plastic bags all together.
ReplyDeleteKaitlyn, I really enjoyed reading your blog post, especially since it is very easy to relate to. No matter what, everybody uses plastic bags and I agree that you can't expect people to just automatically stop using plastic bags for good. People should have time to adjust to a different life style and ease into the changes. But like you said about the "Lorax" video, we have to act fast because of the constant pollution on our earth and it is up to us to make a difference. People have to understand that we have to make changes in order to see our earth as healthy and beautiful; we have to do something. I really enjoyed reading your blog post and it has made me think deeper about the use of plastic bags throughout our every day lives.
ReplyDeleteThank you to all of you guys that commented on my blog post and said your own opinion about this topic. Most of you are all pretty torn between wanting to ban plastic bags or not because of the pros and cons of each side. I feel like everyone thinks the same way we do about this topic, and that's why it's such a hard decision to make. A lot of people said the idea about reusable bags and how that would be even better than using paper bags. I agree with that point, but it might not be something that every family can afford to buy. Maybe in certain stores they could do a rewards type thing where if you spend over a certain amount of money you can get a free reusable bag. Maybe that would help plant the seed of how those bags are better for the environment. It might also help people to realize that the bags are worth that dollar and actually buy more and use them.
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