March 7, 2008
by Harper Pack, Nick Petrie and Devin McCarthy
Editor’s note: On Tuesday, March 4, members of Greeley’s anti-global warming club, Silent Earth, appeared before the New Castle Town Board to lobby for a ban on single-use plastic and paper bags. The following is a copy of their proposal to the town board. Their presentation generated a lively discussion among the board members.
Our single-use bag campaign was born out of a mix of idealism and practicality. At the beginning of our senior year, we founded an anti-global warming club, Silent Earth, for those who shared our environmental fervor. Having gathered a few like-minded students, we set to work. We started by going around last fall to local businesses and asking for estimates of annual paper and plastic bag usage. The numbers were staggering: within the town of New Castle alone, approximately 3,546,073 bags are consumed each year—2,469,120 plastic bags and 1,076,953 paper bags. The average family in New Castle consumes more than 719 bags per year.
We worked with the data even further, trying to quantify the environmental, social, and political effects of single-use bags, along with their total energy cost. We found that the energy expended in making all the bags that New Castle consumes annually could be otherwise used to power 111 American homes for a full year, to drive a car across the United States 638 times or even to launch the Statue of Liberty into space.
The ubiquitous plastic bag, with us, literally, forever
The use of plastic bags endangers the citizens’ health: disposed plastic acts as a sponge for toxic chemicals. When animals— from fish to cows—mistakenly eat bits of plastic, the toxins are absorbed into their bodies and eventually find their way into the human food supply. The production of plastic bags generates greenhouse gases and other pollutants, which have been linked to serious respiratory complications. These dangerous emissions have also been linked to the development of asthma in children.
Plastic bags pollute our environment. Firstly, plastic bags do not biodegrade. Instead, plastic bags photo degrade, breaking down into smaller and smaller bits that pollute the ground, water and ecosystems with toxic chemicals. It is estimated that there are 46,000 pieces of plastic debris floating around in each square mile of ocean. Over 100,000 marine animals die each year due to ingestion of plastic bags they mistake for food. Furthermore, the oil used to create plastic bags releases toxic chemicals into our skies, among them greenhouse gases which contribute to global warming (which, in turn, contributes to countless other environmental problems).
We pay for our use of plastic bags. The social cost of one plastic bag—the amount taxpayers pay due to CO2 emissions, litter removal, recycling and landfill costs—is $0.11. Plastic bags cost the taxpayers of New Castle $271,603.20 a year. This money could be used to buy 679 computers for the Chappaqua schools. Alternatively, this money could be used to buy sturdy, reusable cloth bags for everyone in New Castle.
As a part of the United States, New Castle has a responsibility to lessen our dependence on oil. Oil profits help to support some of the cruelest governments in the world, such as Sudan, Nigeria, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, and some of the world’s most brutal terrorist organizations, Al-Qaeda among them.
Surprise! Paper is worse!
Paper bags are not a viable alternative to plastic bags. The manufacturing of a paper bag requires nearly four times as much energy as the manufacturing of a plastic bag. The recycling of a paper bag requires nearly eighty-five times as much energy as the recycling of a plastic bag. Beyond energy costs, each year millions of trees are cut down to make paper bags, something which heavily contributes to global warming and environmental devastation. And paper mills do their part in releasing major toxic chemicals into our air and water.
The environmental benefits of reusable cloth bags
The best alternative is to use reusable cloth bags. Cloth bags are sturdy, spacious, light, compact and, most importantly, reusable. Reusable bags prevent the use and waste of millions of paper and plastic bags. Over their lifetime, reusable bags will conserve the town’s energy, limit pollution and save the town and its taxpayers money. The additional economic cost of cloth bags is negligible in the face of the substantial benefits they provide both to society and the environment.
There is a clear need for change. There are two viable options to reduce our reliance on single use paper and plastic bags. The first is to completely ban paper and plastic bags, and replace them with reusable cloth bags. The alternative is to enact a partial ban on single-use bags: all paper and non-biodegradable plastic bags would be prohibited and replaced with biodegradable plastic bags and reusable cloth bags. The first option is the more environmentally friendly of the two, and the one we think wisest.
Author’s note: We presented our findings to the town board on March 4, and they showed an interest in our work. They preferred the partial ban solution to the complete eradication of single-use bags, and we look forward to continuing the discussion with them. They have asked us to provide them additional information on the cost of biodegradable bags and some suggestions on how a partial ban could be implements in New Castle. For questions, comments, or if you would like to help, we can be contacted at
Harper Pack, Nick Petrie and Devin McCarthy are seniors at Horace Greeley High School.
Copyright 2008 NewCastleNOW.org