Plastic. It’s everywhere. It is in our countertops, water bottles, glasses, food wrap, toys and in many other items that we use on a regular basis. But why am I writing about plastic? Well, it has to do with a three-year ordinance that was recently removed by the Supreme Court Of Texas.
In 2015, Laredo passed an ordinance that prevented commercial outlets—such as grocery stores—from being able to provide plastic bags to customers. According to an article by the Texas Municipal League (TML), the ban was designed to create a “trash-free city”.
However, in the same TML article, it was stated that “the Texas Health And Safety Code prohibits a city from adopting an ordinance, rule, or regulation to ‘prohibit or restrict, for solid waste management purposes, the sale or use of a container or package in a manner not authorized by state law.” As a result, a case entitled Laredo Merchants Association VS The City Of Laredo was brought forth and, last Friday June 22nd, the Supreme Court Of Texas struck down the single use plastic bag ban. What this means for Laredo, and the other cities who had taken up a similar ordinance, is that they will now have to start providing plastic bags once again.
Not surprisingly, the Supreme Court’s decision has been met by backlash. Most of this backlash has, according to Texas Tribune, come from “environmental groups, which had argued the ban kept at bay the harsh environmental damage brought by plastics.” Furthermore, in the TML article, it was stated that “the city argued that, by regulating plastic bags, the ordinance aims to prevent litter as opposed to managing solid waste. The court disagreed and stated that, by prohibiting the sale and use of bags to prevent them from becoming litter, the ordinance is regulating the generation of litter. Controlling the generation of solid waste is the ‘management’ of solid waste as that term is defined by the code.”
So, what exactly is the damage that plastic causes our environment? One of the biggest detrimental effects plastic causes our environment is the pollution that it causes. This was, of course, one of Laredo’s biggest reasons for passing this ban. As mentioned at the beginning of this article, plastic can be found in a variety of common objects. More importantly, many of these objects—such as bottles, bags and food wrap—are those that are used once and then discarded. I mean, how many of us re-use our plastic bags and bottles? Some of you may throw them away after the first use and others may re-use them once or twice before they too are discarded.
Another detrimental effect that plastic causes the environment is the way it affects the animals. This is, most particularly, to the fish and other creatures that call the ocean their home. According to an article by The Independent “more than eight million tonnes [of plastic goes] into the oceans every year.” The fish and other creatures living in or around the ocean then ingest the plastic, thinking it is food, or else will get entangled in it. Both of these actions taken by the sea animals can lead to harmful effects in them, including death.
However, plastic is not only harmful to animals, but to humans as well. According to the Center For Biological Diversity (which also touched on how plastic effects sea animals) plastic absorbs toxic chemicals—such as PCBS, DDT and PAH—all of which cause cancer and endocrine disruption. The way humans get affected by these chemicals is when the sea animals ingest them, humans eat the animals and receive the harmful effects of the chemicals.
It is clear that plastic does harm the environment and all the people and animals that reside in it. But the issue, I believe, was that—how much should the government regulate what we do? Should the government have to tell us to limit the use or plastic or should we take it upon ourselves to do so? I think it is the latter.
So, what can we do about this? It’s much easier to say “limit the use of plastic” than it is to actually do it. But there are small steps we can take. When I lived in Belgium, stores did not give out plastic bags. Instead, for 50 cents, you could purchase a reusable bag that could be used to store and transport your groceries. That is something we could take up here in America. It would limit the amount of plastic bags making their way into the ocean, harming humans and animals and littering the environment. All we would have to do is remember to bring our bags to the store each time.
And there is always recycling. When something is recycled, it is essentially remade into another object. In that affect, recycling causes something to be re-used. So instead of finishing off with a plastic object and throwing it in the garbage, we should let it be recycled.
Keeping our environment clean and safe should be our biggest priority. Because we live in it and we want to make sure we leave it intact for our children and future generations.
Articles used in this piece: https://www.texastribune.org/2018/06/22/texas-supreme-court-rules-bag-bans/, https://www.tml.org/legis_updates/court-strikes-down-laredo-plastic-bag-ban, https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/plastic-how-planet-earth-environment-oceans-wildlife-recycling-landfill-artificial-a7972226.html, https://www.lifewithoutplastic.com/store/how_plastics_affect_the_environment#.WzZQ4PlKiUk and https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/ocean_plastics/.
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