Rantz: Arrogant, environmentally frivolous Tacoma officials move to ban plastic bags

Despite less than 50 percent of Tacoma residents interested in a plastic bag ban, the paternalistic Tacoma City Council is moving ahead with a ban. Why? Because they know better than you. Because: environment and social justice!

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After an informal city survey indicated they didn’t have the support they thought they’d have to ban plastic bags, the Tacoma News Tribune indicates that the council is moving forward anyway, hoping to change people’s habits.

“We do need to change the habits and move away from using something that, all in all, is not good for us as a whole,” council member Keith Blocker told the Tribune.

The problem is, council member Blocker doesn’t have facts on his side to make the case.

Plastic bags makes up less than 1 percent of Tacoma’s overall waste, so it’s hardly one of the city’s pressing issues. Moreover, the anti-plastic bag positions seem to ignore some basic facts about waste and the environment.

While plastic bags don’t biodegrade, they lead to less waste than paper bags (the most convenient alternative to plastic bags). Paper bag production emits about 70 percent more air pollutants than plastic bag production and it takes 14 million trees to produce the paper bags we use every year. Additionally, paper bag production consumes four times as much energy and uses three times more water than plastic bags. The process of recycling paper bags also generates 80 percent more solid waste than the alternative. Oh, and the EPA has indicated paper doesn’t degrade much faster than plastic.

Council member Blocker apparently also supports 5-cent-fees to use plastic bags. I guess his environmental concern isn’t that deep.

But enviro-ignorance aside, consider what this means to low-income Tacoma residents who don’t want to shell out money for the reusable tote bags that we often forget we own after we make the initial purchase. Speaking of reusable bags, Blocker told the Tribune that he hasn’t heard any complaints ” … so I think it’s working pretty well.”

Yet when the people of Tacoma say they don’t support the idea of a plastic bag ban, he ignores them.