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Murashige, Laura ,
From: Donna R. Goodale [donna @goodale.org]
Sent: Monday, February 14, 2011 6:50 PM ED
To: counciltestimony @ co.hawaii.hi.us
Subject: FW: Testimony for Bill ,
Attachments: Testimony for Bill.doc
From: Nora Frank [ mailto :4spotbutterflyfish @gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 27, 20114:23 PM
To: counciltestimony @co.hawaii.hi.us
Cc: Mrs. Goodale
Subject: Testimony for Bill
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Comm. No. �• 43 _
Ref. To: *MW#kV W
Ref. Date FEB 1 6 2011
2/15/2011
Testimony for Bill # 17 (Plastic Bag Reduction Bill)
Nora Frank
Age: 14; 9 th grade
75 403 Hoene St
Kailua Kona, HI 96740
4spotbutterfl fish gmail.com
Worldwide, more than 500 billion plastic bags are used annually.
Nearly 1 million of those bags are used annually per person. 100 billion
plastic bags alone are consumed by the United States. The consumption of
these bags ends up in landfills, which up on average are 7% of the waste and
18% of the volume in landfills. A single plastic bag weighs around 2 grams,
which is about 1 1 /2 oz. Worldwide 44,100 million pounds of plastic bags are
made annually and 26,700 million pounds ends up as solid waste. A study
has shown from Algalita Marine Research Foundation on the coast of
California that broken, degraded plastic pieces outweigh surface
zooplankton in the Central and North Pacific by a factor of 6:1. This means
that there are 61bs of plastic for every 1 lb of zooplankton. On land, in
landfills plastic shopping bags can last as a whole in landfills up to a
thousand years. From there photodegradation occurs. This is when plastic
bags break down into tiny, toxic particles that become mixed in with the soil
and water. Many associated costs with stray plastic bags in recycling
industries are the costs for the removal of plastic bags from recycling
machines as well as cost reductions in recycled materials that have been
contaminated due to plastic bags. These associated costs of plastics bags on
average can equal out to be around $694,000 annually.