Oct 21 - Scientific American: Bag Bans Work!

We at CAW were thrilled when Governor Brown signed SB 270, banning plastic bags here in California. It’s a policy we have been fighting hard in favor of for years. So why plastic bags specifically? We fought to ban plastic bags in California because research shows that this one simple measure has an outsized impact on reducing the harm plastics cause to our state’s beautiful landscape and priceless natural resources.

A recent article in Scientific American recently outlined the beneficial results that other municipalities have seen just from banning this one kind of litter. After all, California is the first state in the U.S. to ban plastic bags, but we have the luxury of looking to other nations who already have bag bans in place. And the data is new but striking. For instance, Ireland found that it was able to reduce plastic bag litter by 95% after banning plastic bags. And that’s an important finding when one considers the harm to our wildlife and water supplies plastic litter can cause. For more about how plastic bag bans have worked all over the world, please see Do Plastic Bag Bans Work?