Bagged and Burdened: Plastic Bag Conundrum

Plastic bags are present everywhere in our everyday routines. They bring ease, low cost and appear to have harmless use. However, their story is a typical example of economics' externalities. The hidden costs related to an activity are not paid by the consumer or producer but by all of society. Plastic bags make the largest industrial sector as evident in the figure below.

Figure 1: Global Plastic Waste generation

Source: Hussain (2020).

As a result, more than one hundred countries in specific have engaged in partial or full bans upon the plastic bags of single use as public policies seeking to efficiently phase out the plastic carryout bags which tripled during 2010-2019 (Elton, 2023).

Our coursework presents the theory of externalities and efficiency which presents the notion of the efficiency in allocation of goods. This theory says that supply and demand work together to decide how resources should be given out. The situation with plastic bags represents an instance where this assumption falls apart. The true cost of plastic bags goes much deeper than just what you pay for them at the store. The environment suffers from things like pollution and animals killed by these bags when caught up in them, which harm ecosystems and different kinds of life (Nwafor and Walker, 2020). Moreover, managing waste takes money from communities or those who pay taxes. Therefore, seeing that plastic bags could be cost-effective in the beginning, it's clear from long-term results that there's a severe inequality between how costs and advantages are distributed. As people who pay attention to their shopping habits and those making policies deal with outcomes from plastic pollution, the need to include external factors and encourage sustainable options gets more urgent.

In line with the economic concept, these negative externalities include;

Environmental Pollution

Plastic bags take a long to decompose and release toxic substances when burned or perish under sunlight (Chidi-Ujeh, 2018). When these items are thrown away, they end up in landfills, oceans and other natural systems. Because plastic takes hundreds of years to break down, it causes harm to animals and damages delicate environments. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch in specific is a notable example of the marine debris littered by plastic waste which emerges from every part of the globe. Sea creatures often confuse plastic bags with food, leading them to eat or get stuck in the bags which can cause harm like injury or death.

Public Health Concern

When plastic bags gather in city areas, they can cause a risk to public health by blocking drains and water channels. According to Alabi et al. (2019), Plastics are made up of synthetic organic polymers their disposal poses toxic chemical constituents in food, drinks and water. The figure below offers a vivid description.

                                                  Figure 2: Chemicals in Plastics

Source: Geneva Environment Network (2024).

Additionally, blocked drainage systems not only make flooding worse during heavy rains but also form pools of still water, which is perfect for disease-spreading pests like mosquitoes to grow in. A notable example of the issue is the devastating 2005 flood in Mumbai, India that killed 1,000 people as a result of plastic bags that block the storm drain, stopping the water of monsoon floods from efficiently draining out (McVeigh, 2023).

Resource Depletion

Single-use bags are mainly made from materials that cannot be renewed, such as fossil fuels. More than 99 percent of the plastic is specifically made from the chemicals that are sourced from the fossil fuels in particular (Dell, 2023). In addition, the burning of the fossil fuels also has produced most of the energy that is required to keep lights on in homes, power the business, and propel the cars (Denchak, 2018). An estimation of about 12 million barrels of the oil specifically are utilised per year to make plastic bags in the United States, and a person averagely throws ten bags per week, representing 520 bags per person per year, the equivalent of car driving for 60 miles (1bagatatime, 2024).

These externalities denote market failure due to the failure of the market to highlight the full costs of plastic bag use. Numerous private and government agencies’ policy suggestions have included the following as provided in the table below;

Figure 3: Plastic Externalities and Policy Suggestions

Externality	Impact	Policy Solution
Environmental pollution	Damage to the ecosystem, loss of biodiversity, health risk	Plastic bag bans
Public health concern	Vector-borne diseases, water-borne diseases	Plastic bag taxes
Resource Depletion	Depletion of natural resources (fossil fuel)	Producer responsibility

Source: Author (2024).

 

Plastic Bag Taxes

Governments could apply a tax to every plastic bag that is given out. This would make using such bags less appealing from a financial perspective, and it has been shown to work. According to Gayle (2023), the utilisation of the supermarkets plastic bags for single use has decreased by 98% since the England retailers started to charge for the bags in the year 2015. These taxes not only provide financial costs to businesses and consumers, it also provide necessary funds for the progression of sustainable approaches, as well as support for environmental management policies. This is beneficial to society as it allows for the management of the externality.

Producer Responsibility

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) has been a common policy adopted by governments across the globe to manage waste management. EPR for packaging in specific aims at reducing the economic and environmental burden of municipalities’ management of plastic waste via extending the producers’ responsibilities to the very end-of-life stage particularly (World Bank, 2022). It encourages the producers to make sure that the production of the bags follows eco-friendly guidelines in the investment for recycled facilities. Moreover, it allows for the effects of plastic bags to be lowered through the adoption of eco-friendly packing and material collection methods.

In conclusion, the heavy use of plastic bags shows a significant market failure, illustrating the true costs of spoiling our environment, public health, and natural resources. By understanding the impact of these externalities, we can appreciate the importance of policies like bans, taxes, and producer responsibilities. As consumers and citizens, let us support sustainable alternative products and actions that address these issues.

References

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Alabi, O.A., Ologbonjaye, K.I., Awosolu, O. and Alalade, O.E. (2019). ‘Public and environmental health effects of plastic wastes disposal: a review’, J Toxicol Risk Assess, 5(021), pp.1-13.

Buchholz, K. (2020). Infographic: The Countries Banning Plastic Bags. [online] Statista Infographics. Available at: https://www.statista.com/chart/14120/the-countries-banning-plastic-bags/ [Accessed 14 Apr. 2024].

Chidi Ujeh, K. (2018). The negative environmental effects of plastic shopping bags. [online] International Bar Association. Available at: https://www.ibanet.org/article/76F8D2A9-1A1D-4A2F-8A6F-0A70149FD4D5 [Accessed 14 Apr. 2024].

Dell, A. (2023). From Fossil Fuels to Plastic Addiction: Unveiling the Hidden Link Impacting Our World. [online] Earth Day. Available at: https://www.earthday.org/from-fossil-fuels-to-plastic-addiction-unveiling-the-hidden-link-impacting-our-world/#:~:text=Over%2099%25%20of%20plastic%20is [Accessed 14 Apr. 2024].

Denchak, M. (2018). Fossil Fuels: The Dirty Facts. [online] NRDC. Available at: https://www.nrdc.org/stories/fossil-fuels-dirty-facts#:~:text=For%20more%20than%20a%20century [Accessed 14 Apr. 2024].

Elton, C. (2023). Do plastic bag bans really help prevent pollution? [online] euronews. Available at: https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/04/05/really-encouraging-plastic-bag-bans-work-say-campaigners-where-is-europe-lagging-behind [Accessed 14 Apr. 2024].

Gayle, D. (2023). Supermarket Plastic Bag Charge Has Led to 98% Drop in Use in England, Data Shows. The Guardian. [online] 31 Jul. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/31/government-urged-to-repeat-success-of-plastic-bag-charge [Accessed 14 Apr. 2024].

Geneva Environment Network (2022). Plastics and Human Health | Plastics and the Environment Series. [online] www.genevaenvironmentnetwork.org. Available at: https://www.genevaenvironmentnetwork.org/resources/updates/plastics-and-health/ [Accessed 17 Apr. 2024].

Hussain, A. (2020). ‘Impact of single use polyethylene shopping bags on environmental pollution, a comprehensive review’, Pure Appl Biol 9(3); pp. 1962-1975.

McVeigh, K. (2023). Plastic waste puts millions of world’s poorest at higher risk from floods. The Guardian. [online] 24 May. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/may/24/plastic-waste-puts-millions-of-worlds-poorest-at-higher-risk-from-floods#:~:text=A%20devastating%202005%20flood%20that [Accessed 17 Apr. 2024].

Nwafor, N. and Walker, T.R. (2020).’ Plastic Bags Prohibition Bill: A developing story of crass legalism aiming to reduce plastic marine pollution in Nigeria’, Marine Policy, 120, p.104160.

World Bank (2022). The Role of Extended Producer Responsibility Schemes for Packaging towards Circular Economies in APEC. [online] Available at: https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/099640003102239957/pdf/P1709940b3dbd3092083b208e60bcd5719a.pdf [Accessed 14 Apr. 2024].