HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0064.082 2010-2012 1
Hawai'i County Council, 9 AM Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Comments on Bill 17, draft 2, re. Plastic Bag Reduction
by Cory Harden,PO Box 10265, Hilo, Occupied Hawaii 96721 mhca interpac.net 808- 968 -8965
We don't need this weak Draft 2, with enforcement and penalty sections cut out . We need the stronger
Draft 1, with six Council votes to override a veto by the mayor.
Many claims made in support of plastic bags are incorrect.
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CLAIM
We need education, not enforcement.
COMMENT
Speed limit signs are education. Cop cars are enforcement. Which one makes you slow down?
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CLAIM
"sales of packaged plastic bags went up by about 400 %" after Ireland began taxing plastic grocery bags.
American Plastic Manufacturing j http :/lwww.apmbags.com /bagmythsJ
COMMENT
The only source I found for this figure was a plastic bag manufacturer —not an independent study.
"...Symphony Plastics have been supplying oxo- biodegradable plastic bags to Co- operative
supermarkets in the UK... CNN spoke to Chief Executive Michael Laurier... [who said] `When
Ireland introduced a tax on plastics bags sales went down by 90 percent, but sales of plastic bin -
liners went up by 400 percent.'.....
fittp: / /edition.cnn.com /2007 /TECH /11 / 14ifsummit .ciimate.plasticbags /]
(At least he makes biodegradable bags.)
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CLAIM
Less than 1 % of litter is plastic bags.
"The plastics industry points out that only a tiny proportion of litter, less than 1 per cent, is
formed of plastic bags." [Q &A: plastic bags and the environment. The Times, March 8,
2008, http : / /www.timesonline.co.uk/toli 'news /environment /article3508311.ece
COMMENT
Plastic bags were one of the top three items of trash found in the 2008 Ocean Conservancy annual
Cleanup. The number of plastic bags found in Hawai'i shoreline and recreational areas. with just one day
of cleanup by volunteers, was about 7800 -14% of total debris items.
( http:// www. oceanconser ,orgloar- worklmarine- c!ebrishcc report./7tM/]
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CLAIM
No extra resources are consumed to make plastic bags — they're made from a by- product of natural gas.
COMMENT
If that by- product was not used for bags, it would probably be used for something else — hopefully
something that was used more than once or twice. You consume resources every time you manufacture
or recycle anything —to obtain materials, transport them, do manufacturing or recycling, and transport
again.
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Comm. No. �' T • v L
Ref. To:
Ref. Dyte - M -P AW -C l 2011
[Now Atlantic is found to have huge 'garbage patch`, The Independent, August 20, 2010,
http: / /www independent co uk/news/ science /now - atlantic -is- found -to -have - huge - garbage- patch-
2057402 html —link from Environmental Protection Agency,
hftp://water.epa.gov/type/oceb/assessmonitor/debris/index.cfm l
The New York Times says there may be four other patches..
"Scientists say the [Great Pacific] garbage patch is just one of five that may be caught in giant
gyres scattered around the world's oceans."
[Afloat in the Ocean, Expanding Islands of Trash, New York Times, November 9, 2009]
And CNN agrees there are others.
"...there are other debris fields in other oceans of the world..."
[Scientists study 'garbage patch' in Pacific Ocean, CNN, August 4, 2009,
hftp:/? www. cnn .com,`2009 /TECH/science /08?04 pacific.garbage. patch ?index.htmll
................. ...............................
About two years ago, the United Nations Under - Secretary- General said: "...thin film single use plastic
bags which choke marine life... should be banned or phased -out rapidly everywhere...'
[UNEP Head Calls for World -Wide Ban on Pointless Thin Film Plastic Bags, 8 June 2009,
http: //www.unep.org/ documents multi ii /default.as 589 &ArticlelD = 6214 & = en.
&t= lon J
That includes here. Mahalo.