Seattle First U.S. City to Charge Shoppers for Paper and Plastic Bags

Article 1:

http://environment.about.com/b/2008/07/29/seattle-approves-user-fee-on-paper-and-plastic-bags-bans-foam-food-containers.htm

Disposable paper and plastic bags used for purchasing products, foods, and groceries are widely used in our daily life. There are argues related to environment with paper and plastic bags usage. Plastic bags can preventing foods from leaking onto car, in case of accident occur while on the journey from the store to home. Plastic bags are made from non-renewable petroleum resources. It can be recycled but not easily because it may be made from several plastic types. Although two plastic items may look similar, they could be made from different types of plastic resins. This makes separating plastics for recycling difficult. Besides, processing require the use of toxic chemicals and these chemicals also pollute the air. In 1986, the EPA, ranked the 20 chemicals whose producing the most hazardous waste. Five of the top six were chemicals commonly used by the plastic industry (propylene, phenol, ethylene, polystrene, and benzene). Plastic bags are high in fuel energy if they are burned and emit harmful gases which may entering the atmosphere.

Brown paper grocery bags have been around for a long time. Although they are made from trees, a renewable resource, the production of trees and manufacture of paper bags can pollute the air and water with chemicals. The environmental impacts include those associated with extracting timber and processing it into paper products. The trees are found, marked and felled in a process that involves clear-cutting, resulting in massive habitat destruction and long-term ecological damage.

Both paper and plastic bags require lots and lots of resources and energy, and proper recycling requires due diligence from both consumer and municipal waste collector or private recycling company, so there are a lot of variables that can lead to low recycling rates. By bringing reusable bags to the store, you are helping the environment in many ways. You are helping to preserve the natural resources of oil and trees which are used to produce plastic and paper bags. Besides, decrease fast growing pollution problems on city streets and waterways. Therefore, creating a safer and cleaner environment for marine life.

Seattle charge a fee on paper and plastic bags to discourage and reduce the amount of paper and plastic that end up as litter or in landfills. This is a good idea to save our planet and leads to other cities to organize similar program. The Body Shop playing the same role as need to pay RM0.50 for a paper or plastic bag during purchase. This shows a very good beginning to encourage save the planet in Malaysia. I believe there will be more program launch to concern about environmental issues.