In New York state alone, more than 23 billion plastic bags are used every year, so it is easy to see why the new ban on single-use plastic bags in New York could make a difference. However, that only makes up approximately 23% of the total plastic bags used annually in the United States and less than 5% of the plastic bags used worldwide. Because New York state makes up such a small amount of the total percentage of plastic bags used worldwide, while this new ban may sound good in theory, it really has a very minimal impact on climate change and helping the environment.

The new plastic bag ban, which went into effect on March 1, states that all companies, grocery stores, shops, and other distributors required to collect a New York state sales tax are not allowed to provide plastic bags to their customers. Instead, they can either sell paper bags or encourage customers to bring their own reusable bags.

While a big reason for the plastic bag ban is that the bags are often only used once and then thrown out, hard to recycle or thrown into the environment, this is not true in many cases.

Studies show that 92% of Americans reuse their plastic bags at least once. Plastic bags can be used for lining trash cans, throwing out garbage, cleaning and even packing kid’s lunches. In fact, Recyc-Québec, a Canadian government agency, discovered that plastic bags are used as trashcan liners 77.7% of the time. With this new plastic bag ban, people are left without bags for non-grocery use. People will have to find an alternative source to use, and the chances are it will be a store-bought plastic garbage bag, which will use even more plastic.

David Popp is a professor of public administration and international affairs at Syracuse University and a specialist in environmental economics.

“One thing to think about is what happens when you ban plastic bags. What else will people do? You bring a bag to the store, but now do I buy plastic bags to line my waste basket as opposed to using the bag from the store?” he said.

These are questions that many New York state residents will begin asking themselves once this new ban’s effects are really felt.

Although this new ban may have a positive impact at the local level, it will not impact the United States or the world to a greater degree. One of the biggest contributors to climate change is the emission of fossil fuels from factories and companies. If New York state and the rest of the country really want to make a difference in this fight against climate change, they must think bigger and enact policies like carbon taxes that target the people doing the most damage.

Skylar Swart is a freshman political science major. Her column appears bi-weekly. She can be reached at saswart@syr.edu. She can be followed on Twitter at @SkylarSwart.

Published on March 11, 2020 at 7:52 pm