HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0064.074 2010-2012 Page 1 of 1
PICOUtiCIOL
Murashige, Laura 31-4 ( 7� { �n
From: Donna R. Goodale [donna @goodale.org]
r r
Sent: Monday, February 14, 2011 6:50 PM I- R , .
To: counciltestimony @co.hawaii.hi.us
Subject: FW: plastic bag speech
Attachments: plastic bag reduction.docx
From: aidan marvick [mailto:aid.mar0809 @gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 27, 20116:45 PM
To: dgoodale @hualalai.org
Subject: plastic bag speech
this si my plastic bag speech. aidan. -- This message has been checked by ESVA and is believed to be
clean.
con". No. � c- =L-,..
Ref. To: ° "��rl�ii �� 0
Ref. Dote XPA z
2/15/2011
Aidan James Marvick
1/27/10
Plastic Bag Reduction
Plastic bags are bad, but reusable bags are good. People keep littering more and more
plastic bags yet the truth is known, animals will die and the world will suffer. We have options
like recycling or using paper bags, both sound good, but neither of them are. There is one option
that is good, use a reusable bag. Reusable bags save a huge amount of plastic bags and therefore
reduce litter around the world.
Plastic bag litter causes so much death to animals and is not at all nice to look at. On
average each year 1 billion seabirds, sea turtles, whales, and other animals die. America alone
uses 3 times the oil of the Bp oil spill on plastic bags, just so 98% of those bags can enter the
waste stream and kill more animals. That's 12 million barrels of oil and is equivalent to 100
billion plastic bags and the world can use up to 1 trillion plastic bags just in 1 year.
Recycling these bags or just using biodegradable paper bags are not viable options. The
cost to recycle 1 ton of plastic bags is $4000, when they can only be sold for $32. Only 1% of
plastic bags are actually recycled. Even though plastic isn't biodegradable it takes 40% less
energy to create than plastic bags, and wood pollution could destroy any river, lake, or stream it
gets into. So we are left with just one option.
Reusable bags on average can save up to 130 plastic bags per person per year. That
would stop almost 8 billion pounds of plastic bags entering the waste stream in America every
year. Each one of those plastic bags will take up to 1000 years to degrade. Every year a plastic
bags sits around it gets more and more toxic to the environment and all the living things in it.
The bottom line is that plastic bags need to go, but it doesn't have to happen right away.
To start fees should be put on the plastic bags at stores to get more people using reusable bags.
Once most shoppers are using their own reusable bags we need to ban them in our state and
hopefully the rest of the country can see it as a model and do the same. If we don't do something
soon the next wave you go and surf or the next lake you go in for a swim could be more plastic
than lake. When you are next asked "Plastic or paper ?" the answer is simple, neither.