Amelia Walden

Ms. Levesque

Communications

26 March 2018

Don’t Put the “Last” in Plastic

Plastic can take over 400 years to decompose, and yet we as humans use it once and

throw it away within minutes. The 70-year old material is plaguing our world and evident in

every landscape. Made with fossil fuels, the production of plastic is incredibly destructive to the

natural world, though it is widely used and distributed in our nation. A plastic bag ban in Summit

County will help the local economy strive, reduce the plastic waste in our environment, and set

an example for other counties in Utah and ultimately the entire United States.

Banning plastic bags in Summit County will reduce the amount of plastic waste our

county contributes to the environment. Summit County prides itself on its wildlife and beautiful

scenery, but plastic bags have a tendency to mar that landscape. By providing cheap and

convenient plastic bags in stores, citizens are encouraged to utilize those and take them home

where they will be used once for the groceries and maybe a second time for carrying lunch.

Then, they must pick up more plastic bags every time they return to the grocery store. This

excessive use of plastic grocery bags causes litter in our environment and is hazardous to

wildlife. Plastic bags blowing around Utah landfills and in the environment commonly end up in

our reservoirs, polluting the water and becoming dangerous to fish. Plastic bags will not even

stay in one place for long and are increasingly difficult to extract from the natural landscape.
 A plastic bag ban would additionally encourage citizens to support Park City’s local

small businesses that are working on reusable bag options. Small, local business is the heart of

Park City’s culture and ties the community members to not only where they buy their goods, but

whom they buy them from. Many small businesses in Park City, such as those participating in

local markets like Park Silly, make reusable and compostable bags for groceries and other items

(i.e. school books, lunches, gear for afterschool activities, yoga, etc.), as well as fashion, in

contrast to ugly plastic bags which have little other use than carrying objects. Citizens will be

more likely to entertain these options for reusable bags if convenient plastic ones are banned.

Investing in these local business owners contributes to Park City’s unique community and real

people, rather than a bigtime plastics corporation in the Salt Lake Valley.

Thin plastic grocery bags cannot be recycled conveniently in curbside pickup services

and must be taken into a store that will then ship them off to a special plant. Because of their

light weight and parachute-like ability to fill with air, plastic bags will float away if left outside,

left in a curbside bin, or while on their way to a recycling plant where they will only cause more

problems. Plastic bags often either become entangled in recycling sorting machines or mix with

the other lanes, and therefore cannot be recycled in ordinary recycling plants. Recycling plant

sorting machines must shut down multiple times a day because plastic bags are stuck. This

creates inefficiency at the recycling plant. Because these bags have no way of being recycled

locally, they must be sent to landfills where they will further litter the environment.

Although some contend that plastic bags are the cheapest and most effective system for

grocery stores and citizens, others can be just as useful and convenient. One method, for

example, is the “bag sharing” system, in which citizens donate reusable bags to a bin at the store
to be used and returned by others. Reusable bags are even more effective because they only have

to be bought once. They can be used in a variety of ways including gym bags, school bags, and

are sturdier to carry heavier items. Fabric bags can be used many times, and most last more than

a year. Investing in reusable bags is more economical and effective for citizens.

A county-wide plastic bag ban will decrease plastic contamination of our environment,

improve local small business, and allow our recycling plants to work more efficiently. If we as a

county start by eliminating just one easy item from our stores, we may hopefully set an example

and improve the environment across the nation.

Works Cited
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Geyer, Roland, Jenna R. Jambeck, Kara Lavender Law. “Production, use, and fate of all

plastics ever made.” ​Science Advances. ​American Association for the Advancement of Science.

July 19, 2017. http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/7/e1700782.full.

Harrabin, Roger. “Ocean plastic a ‘planetary crisis’ - UN.” ​BBC. ​BBC. December 5,

2017. http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-42225915

Kramer, Sarah. “Something ugly happens if you try to recycle plastic grocery bags at

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Lillie Walden: Interview

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