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
Symbolize unsustainable culture
(https://daily.jstor.org/how-should-we-deal-with-plastic-bags/)
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.
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