Battle of the Bags Summary

Battle of the Bags

One local effect that I did not know that plastic bag waste was the indirect link to malaria that was mentioned in the documentary. I knew of the open sewers with defecated bags, but I did not even think about how, when it rains, the water that interacts with these “poop bags” creates a perfect environment for mosquitos to breed in. This then prompts more mosquitos to come and spread malaria to villages that have this problem (CBC, 2008).

One compelling way people in the video were attempting to manage the local impact of plastic bag waste was the way Ireland wanted to manage the issue through taxes on plastic bags, specifically a 30-cent tax. In the video, it states that Ireland’s government announced that plastic bag usage dropped around a whopping 90% (CBC, 2008).

Personally, I found Ireland’s, the local and metropolitan plans of the UK’s, and San Francisco’s strategies to be the most realistic, and effective, for dealing with plastic bag waste. All 3 strategies blended well different local, regional, and national tactics that seemed to make at least somewhat of a difference. While having a global impact on ending plastic bag waste is the endgame, I think Rebecca Hosking’s opinion that starting small and working up is one that could work. Her statement that even combatting the plastic bag problem on a local level could have an effect if done efficiently and done by more regions (CBC, 2008). There are certain countries (cough cough the USA) that need more than just a national strategy to accomplish such an ironically large task, as we, as well as other countries, have huge political lobbying powers that can grab local communities by the cajones. That’s why working to combat this environmental epidemic will take more than just action on the national level, it would need to start on all different levels of grassroots movement and government. It needs to have more than one avenue of pressure on government officials and politicians, otherwise such a movement will and can be easily defeated by just a simple transfer of funds between hands or one vote in a room.

The image above is a graph of the change in national litter composition in Ireland of when and after the plastic bag levy/tax of 30 cents was passed in 2002 and its effects up until 2014. After about 12 years, the amount of plastic bags in national litter went from 5% to 0.13%, which was “40 times less litter from plastic bags in Ireland today as compared to the year 2000.” Not only did the levy greatly reduce the amount of plastic bag waste in Ireland, but the levy was, and is, highly popular among storeowners and stakeholders, and was stated to have saved storeowners money in the long run (Anastasio and Nix, 2016).

Anastasio, M. & Nix, J. (2016). Plastic Bag Levy In Ireland. Institute for European Environmental Policy. Pgs 4-5. https://ieep.eu/uploads/articles/attachments/0817a609-f2ed-4db0-8ae0-05f1d75fbaa4/IE%20Plastic%20Bag%20Levy%20final.pdf?v=63680923242 

Canadian Broadcasting Channel. (2008). Battle of the Bag [Video file]. Uploaded to YouTube (October 20, 2019). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6im-sFx5T0