ways to take out trash without plastic bag

This further underscored the double life of plastic grocery bags, Huang said. These results echo earlier studies that also showed increases in sales of smaller plastic trash bags.īut while sales of small garbage bags jumped after policies were implemented, sales of larger 13-gallon trash bags - the size often found in kitchen trash cans - remained relatively unchanged. The study found California communities with bag policies saw sales of 4-gallon trash bags increase by 55% to 75%, and sales of 8-gallon trash bags increase 87% to 110%. The selected counties were far enough away from each other to account for shoppers who might cross into a neighboring county to avoid the policy. Keeping in mind the second life that plastic grocery bags take on in many homes, Huang and professor Richard Woodward of Texas A&M University measured plastic trash bag sales in counties with bans or fees in place, and compared them to other counties without such policies. Is banning plastic bags effective overall? An environmental economist, Huang used a new way to calculate the effect of either policy while also accounting for variables such as residents' income levels and an area's population density, both of which influence the amount of trash generated in a community. Previous studies have looked at the effect of bag bans on plastic consumption, but not the combined effects of fees or a bag ban. 'So, we wanted to see the effectiveness of this policy in reducing bag usage overall.' 'We know there is a demand for using plastic bags, and we know, if these policies go into effect, some bags will disappear or will become more costly to get,' said Yu-Kai Huang, a postdoctoral researcher at the UGA Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. When these shopping bags are taxed or taken away, people look for alternatives - which means they buy small plastic garbage bags. That's because while plastic grocery bags are viewed as a single-use item, they often find a second use as liners for small trash cans. The study was published earlier this year in the journal Environmental and Resource Economics.

But a new analysis by a University of Georgia researcher finds these policies, while created with good intentions, may cause more plastic bags to be purchased in the communities where they are in place.

Ways to take out trash without plastic bag