Michigan Should Michigan To Ban Or Not To Ban On Plastic Bags

Plastic has an abundant amount of uses in daily life. Whether someone knows it or not, plastic is prevalent in everyday objects: containers, computer screens, and even DVDs. One of the main uses of plastic is in bags, and people use them for everything, from carrying lunch to lugging groceries. Although they are an ingenious invention, there are also many negative effects associated with plastic bags, as they are not biodegradable. These types of bags are made from natural gas and petroleum and plastic bags crowd landfills and pollute oceans and lakes (Cho). This pollution takes away from the beauty of the outdoors and the greatness of a city. Many states and nations have a ban on plastic bags, should Michigan do the same? Michigan should ban
Since they accumulate on streets and in bodies of water, its debris has affected 267 marine species worldwide. Ingestion, starvation, suffocation, infection, drowning, and entanglement are all types of deaths caused by plastic (The Problem of Marine Plastic Pollution). According to Recycling Facts, “Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as one million sea creatures a year.” There is even a “landfill” called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch that is twice the size of Texas and floats between California and Hawaii. This garbage patch is composed of eighty percent plastic and weighs around 3.5 million tons. The documentary, Bag It, also explores how plastic impacts marine life. Since it never degrades completely, it has the capacity to break down into small pieces. These small pieces are what marine animals ingest and cause them to die out or suffer from the side effects. It is estimated that “over a hundred thousand birds and marine animals die each year from ingesting, or getting entangled in plastic debris” (Bag
This is one of the many problems associated with the urban pollutant, but if they were to be completely banned, there would be significant implications. For example, in the state of California, manufacturing jobs would be jeopardized. According to Fox, “Plastic bags are not as bad as some Americans might think: ninety percent of Americans reuse their plastic bags and cotton grocery bags have to be used 131 times before their contribution to global climate change becomes lower than that of a plastic bags used just once.” This is one example of how the ban of plastic bags would not be beneficial. To add more to the idea of consumers bringing their own bags to grocery stores, there are positive and negative connotations associated with either side. Many people believe that fabric bags are environmentally friendly, last longer, and are reusable; however, there is a downside. Since stores do not offer complementary bags that are reusable, they are more expensive for the consumers when compared to plastic bags. With that being said, if a customer forgets their bag, they either have to carry their groceries by hand, purchase more reusable bags, or find alternatives. It soon becomes a cycle of the accumulation of reusable bags––just like plastic