Too many plastic bags are used on consumer products (e.g. shopping bags, plastics to package produce).

Symptoms

Consequences

Causes

"Market Failures"

Wasted production energy

Air pollution

Litter

Plastic pollutes oceans and marine habitats

Versatility of material

Cheap to produce

Convenient for consumers

More sanitary than not using bags (https://www.bagtheban.com/learn-the-facts/health/)

Kinds of plastic - how recyclable are these plastics

Who creates the most plastic bag trash?

Number of tons of plastic used

Increased greenhouse gas emissions

More durable than paper bags

Consumes non-renewable petrochemical resources

Lack of competition

Externalities

Damage to farmland

Damage the ecosystem consumers and producers through butterfly effects in addition to plants and wildlife

Damage to fisheries hurts consumers

Reusable bags are sold for a lot of money

Biodegradable bags don't biodegrade well

Robust lobbies

American Recyclable Plastic Bag Alliance

Petroleum lobby

Plastics Industry Association

Lightweight

Barriers to entry and exit

Alternatives need to be accepted by retail stores

Cost of alternatives

Information asymmetry

Kills wildlife

"Anthropogenic debris in seafood: Plastic debris and fibers from textiles in fish and bivalves sold for human consumption" (Rochman, Tahir, et al., 2015)
https://www.nature.com/articles/srep14340/

Logistical concerns unique to the modern food supply chain i.e. long distance transportation of food.

Information about supply chain plastic consumption isn't available to consumers when making choices.

The 2015 bag tax in Portugal led to a "74% reduction of plastic bag consumption with a simultaneously 61% increase of reusable plastic bags." (Martinho, Balaia & Pires, 2017)

Damage to coastal dunes hurts consumers

Plastic additives impact water quality and are absorbed by seeds/roots to influence germination and affect plant populations (Menicagli, Balestri & Lardicci, 2019).
https://www-sciencedirect-com.proxyau.wrlc.org/science/article/pii/S0048969719322867#f0015

Information about whether plastics are actually recycled isn't available for a given piece of plastic.

image
Table 4. Bags Consumption by Respondents
(Martinho, Balaia & Pires, 2017)
https://www-sciencedirect-com.proxyau.wrlc.org/science/article/pii/S0956053X17300223#f0005

Public goods

Polluted recreational waterways

Litter

Biodegradable bags aren't sturdy

plastic is produced to streamline shipping logistics and changing packaging would require changing those logistics

"Deposition rates averaged 132 plastics per square meter per day, which amounts to >1000 metric tons of plastic deposition to western U.S. protected lands annually."
Plastic rain in protected areas of the United States (Brahney, Hallerud, et al., 2020)
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/368/6496/1257

Environmental Deterioration of Biodegradable, Oxo-biodegradable, Compostable, and Conventional Plastic Carrier Bags in the Sea, Soil, and Open-Air Over a 3‑Year Period (Napper, I., Thompson, R., 2019)
https://pubs-acs-org.proxyau.wrlc.org/doi/pdf/10.1021%2Facs.est.8b06984

The Environmental Impacts of Packaging (Pongrácz, E., 2007)
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/229796182_The_Environmental_Impacts_of_Packaging