I saw a lot of fantastic sights on a recent trip to Ireland. But
it was only after I came home that I realized there was a common staple of life
that I hadn't seen there.
This year's Earth Day theme is "End Plastic Pollution,"
and I discovered that Ireland, progressive little country that it is, had
passed a plastic bag tax in 2002. It was then I realized I hadn't seen any
plastic bags in Ireland.
No bags blew through the air like kites on the Ring of Kerry. No
one bagged my T-shirts in plastic at the Killarney Brewery. The streets of
Dublin yielded not one siting of the ubiquitous bag lofting over the River
Liffey.
Ireland hadn't "banned" the plastic bag, but when they
placed a fairly steep tax — about 22 euros cents or 33 cents American — they
also started a public relations campaign to explain the importance of ending
the reliance on plastic. Soon, lots of ordinary people began purchasing
reusable canvas bags and keeping them handy.
The money from the tax goes, fittingly enough, to the ministry of
the environment. And to enforce the purpose of the tax, stores were prohibited
from simply paying the tax on the bags themselves and passing the cost on in
some other way. And although my souvenirs were bagged in paper, grocers were
warned not to merely substitute paper for plastic.
The amazing thing, according to a New York Times story run a few
years after the tax was enacted, was that within a few weeks, plastic bag use
dropped by over 90 percent. Like smoking too close to the office door, or
failing to clean up after Rover, it became socially unacceptable to be seen
using plastic.
Omaha, the city where I live, is currently having a discussion
about imposing a fee for plastic bags. Just as in other cities where it has
been debated, there are arguments on both sides.
Paper bags, while biodegradable, take more energy to create.
Canvas bag must be washed occasionally. Some jurisdictions worry that jobs in
plastic manufacturing will be lost. (Ireland had no plastic manufacturing and
got most of theirs from China.)
But here's the powerful flip side: According to The Wall Street
Journal, 100 billion plastic bags are thrown away in the U.S. annually. They
poison and injure marine life. In the past few days, a dead sperm whale was
discovered with 64 pounds of garbage in his digestive system, lots of it
plastic.
Plastic bags litter our beaches and landscapes. Few of them are
biodegradable, and will be around for hundreds of years, clogging our waterways
and piling up in our landfills. We're desecrating our sacred environment.
The Wall Street Journal also reports that the World Economic Forum
found that by 2050, there will be more plastic than fish, by weight, in the
oceans. Plastic threatens our planet's survival, which is why 25 countries have
tried to initiate programs to reduce single use plastic.
What can we do against 100 billion bags? By using recyclable
bags, we can each save hundreds of plastic ones yearly. Keep them in the car
where you'll remember them. Take the ones you do get to the recycle bins that
most grocery stores offer.
Earth Day 2018 urges us to reduce, refuse, reuse, recycle and
remove plastic. Not just bags, but the single use plastics that are so
ubiquitous in our society.
Carry your own utensils when you know you'll be offered plastic.
Take your own container to the restaurant for leftovers. Be the example that
may help change attitudes the way the Irish did.
© Arlington Catholic Herald 2021