Hawaii bans plastic bags
The island state is giving businesses two years to adjust to a world without plastic shopping bags.
Wed, May 02 2012 at 9:06 AM EST
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Photo: Julian Stallabrass/Flickr
A huge congratulations to the Big Island of Hawaii for joining the islands of Maui and Kauai and banning the use of plastic shopping bags. The bill won't take effect until next year and gives businesses and additional year to adjust to using paper bags.
Plastic shopping bags are a complicated issue. One one hand, they're much lighter than paper bags and can be transported using much less fuel per bag. On the other hand they don't ever biodegrade (well, they do, it just takes hundreds of years) and they litter landscapes and waterways all over the planet. In the long term, plastic bags are a disaster.
Hawaii already has to deal with plastic trash from the Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch washing up on its beaches, so it's good to know that it won't be too long before residents can stop worrying about the additional pollution created by plastic shopping bags.
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Comments
srb
05/10/2012 09:22 AM
I guess Hawaii is one of the only places where they didn't realize everyone else banning bags is actually allowing compostable plastic bags which are also biobased and encourage composting of kitchen and yard waste.
krtmckenney
05/09/2012 19:28 PM
I'm going to guess that I am the only one who remembers that Plastic Bags were one of the first big "Green" Initiatives. It worked about as well as the rest of them.
Lee
05/04/2012 08:07 AM
Well done Hawaii! So very proud! Lets hope the world follows suit. They are a menace and the world will be a better place without them!
Cara
05/02/2012 23:04 PM
Actually it was the island of Oahu that banned the plastic bags not the Big island, they did that in January. :)
