Ban on Bags

(photo credit:en.wikipedia.org)

Earlier in the year I wrote about the difference between paper and plastic bags. It seems that San Francisco is having a similar dilemma because they are in theprocess of trying to pass a bill to stop large corporations from using plastic bags. First I asked myself, what’s the problem with plastic bags? In my first blog I concluded that paper bags were worst but I didn’t exactly focus on the damage that plastic bags can do. These plastic bags use unneeded amounts of fossil fuel to make, litter the streets, and pose a threat to wildlife. This isn’t the first time that SanFrancisco has made an effort to decrease the amounts of plastic bags. In 2005, the government made an agreement with the major grocery stores that the stores would decrease the amounts of plastic bags that they handed out so that there would be 10 million plastic bags less used in 2006. Unfortunately, the grocery stores hadn’t held up their part of the agreement by only saving about 7.6 less plastic bags in 2006.

The next question I asked myself was, if they aren’t going to use plastic bags, then what are they going to use? The San Francisco government decided that instead of the standard plastic bags, grocery stores would have to supply for their costumers with biodegradable bags, cloth or sturdy plastic bags that can be used repeatedly. But wait, if they are trying to ban the standard plastic bags, then why are they replacing them with thicker plastic bags? Although I’m a little baffled behind this concept, I understand their logic. Even though there would be more plastic needed, the idea would be that the people use the bags multiple times cutting down the amounts of total bags distributed every day. Then there are cloth bags, yes they would be the ideal choice because of reusability, but it raises the issue of cost. And in modern America money is an important factor in every decision. In terms of plastic bags, it costs retailers about $4 million annually. With this new ban maybe retailers would be able to save money.

This sounds like a good plan on behalf of San Francisco to cut down on plastic bags. It would save fuel, money and the environment from harm. Although there are a few questions that this ban will raise, only time will tell.

Sources:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17517200/

http://www.reusablebags.com/facts.php?id=10

 

Reason of death: commuting

Everybody makes some kind of commute every week Whether its by plane, train or automobile everyone is at risk of shortening their lives because of it. Why, you may ask? Is it because of the stress, road rage or crashes? No, it’s because often soot particles that we breath everyday on our commute. I never thought that on my way to school everyday that Ii could potentially be shortening my life, but I possibly am.

                            (photo credit:en.wikipedia.org)

According to Scientific American, one of the main sources of these soot particles are diesel-powered trucks. Everyone’s seen them, those huge rigs that constantly have smoke emitting out of them. The New Jersey Media Group compares the exposure to soot particles on you commute to being in a closed car with a smoker everyday.Eventhough, most people only commute for a couple of hours every day (hopefully), the exposure to damaging soot particles is tremendous.

This knowledge has come to the public’s attention thanks to the Clean Air Task Force, located in Boston. The CATF said that about 13 million vehicles spewed these particles last year alone. Luckily, the CATF said this all could be helped with the installation of filters or retrofitting these vehicles with new muffler and tailpipe systems. Unfortunatly that would cost between $7000 and $9000 per vehicle. If all 13 million vehicles form last year were to be retrofitted it would cost between $91 billion and $117 billion total.

So with those numbers in mind, the government has a harder decision on whether or not make companies retroit all of their vehicles.

Calculation: 13,000,000 * 7000= 91,000,000,000 ; 13,000,000* 9000= 117,000,000,000

Sources: http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkzJmZnYmVsN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk3MDg1NDgyJnlyaXJ5N2Y3MTdmN3ZxZWVFRXl5Mg

http://www.grist.org/news/daily/2007/03/02/?source=rss#4

http://sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=870271B323EDC885B0478B67113FDBB1