In the contemporary world, individuals and advocacy groups are increasingly pushing for the ban of plastic shopping bags and giving proposals that they should be replaced with reusable and biodegradable ones. This is as a result of their synthetic nature and how critics consider them as environmental pollutants. Most of those who are for the ban also claim that the alternative bags offer economic benefits for store owners because they are offered at some percentage price. So, when analyzing the merits and demerits of the plastic ban within a local authority or boundaries like states or municipalities, it will be essential to examine its anticipated social, economic, and environmental impacts. This paper will give a summary of a relevant article to this topic after which it will evaluate the authors’ main argument.

In the article entitled “It’s been a year since California banned single-use plastic bags. The world didn’t end” by the Los Angeles Times Editorial board, the authors aim at showing how legislators and individual groups in California are winning the war against plastic bags. This article is giving precise developments of how the Californian state has progressed since banning plastic bags a year ago. From the publication, it can be noted that the ban is the first in the US and its momentous change seems not to be a great deal in the society. Like critics of the ban had predicted, the introduced reusable bags did no cause food-borne ailments. Instead, they served the right purpose by reducing environmental pollution by over thirteen billion bags that were given out at shopping points such as groceries and checkout counters. The authors also argue that the ban was responded to positively as a result of residents of the state developing a feeling that everything was not okay about all the bags that were hanging on trees, floating in the ocean or caught up in drains.

The members of the editorial board support their argument of how this ban was significant by showing how initial local prohibitions had already cut down the plastic bag litter on ocean beaches. The ban was substantial because the preliminary figure of litter in the environment had dropped further for a second consecutive year after the passage of the statewide prohibition. This drop can be reflected by the annual coastal cleanup where approximately 3.1% of litter collected in the previous year from the beach of California had dropped from 7.4% in the last half a decade (The Times Editorial Board, 2017).

Another significant aspect of this article is how politics played center stage when the ban was proposed for the first time. A critical analysis of the events recorded in the article shows that there were strong campaigns to persuade voters to uphold the band and others to reject it. Those who were against the ban seemed to be the producers while the proponents were those environmental advocates. Those who were in support of the ban made arguments that the political battles were not aimed to achieve self-interests but were a crucial step towards reducing disposable plastic wastes. However, California might have achieved the ban on plastic bags, but there are still unattractive heaps of single-use products made of synthetic material. The authors argue that these heaps are not only an eyesore but also a threat to the environment. Besides the damage it has on the environment, this article affirms that the main aim behind the banning of plastic bags is that it is not biodegradable hence breaking into small particles, spreading in water bodies and creeping into food chains. This explains why there was a need to act quickly and reduce the impacts of such bags in the Californian state.

When a critical analysis and evaluation of the article is made, it is evident that the central claim of the authors revolves around the demerits and merits of the plastic ban and the economic, social and environmental impacts it had in the state of California. This is also in line with the thesis statement of this paper that because it addresses the major arguments of the article by summarizing its claims. Some of the explicit reasons to show that this article is relevant to an emerging social and environmental issue include the statistics and data pertinent to the plastic bag menace in the state. Some of these statistics relate to the amount of bags produced by manufacturers before the ban and the significant drop in plastic product pollution in ocean beaches and drains. For instance, I believe the approximated percentages of the reduction in plastic bags collected during cleanups in subsequent years since 2010 is a clear indication that the proposals for the ban were effective.  I also concur with the implicit pieces of evidence of this article because they show how various parties have been struggling over the issue of the plastic ban in California.

To conclude, the authors have made clear submissions of how state actors, advocates, and individual personalities can advocate for or against an issue that affects the economy and the environment. This can be seen through the Californian example after a successful ban of the plastic bag production and use.

References

The Times Editorial Board (2017). ‘It’s been a year since California banned single-use plastic bags. The world didn’t end.’ Los Angeles Times Retrieved from https://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-plastic-bag-ban-anniversary-20171118-story.html

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