Plastic (44 page)

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"
Check out the Sack
": Flexible Packaging Association, "An Industry Takes Shape: The FPA Story, 1950–2000," 28.

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most persuasive factor
: The paper industry did not give up without a fight. It defended paper bags on environmental grounds. With environmental concerns focused on threats of overflowing landfills, paper did have a better story to tell: it was a biodegradable material and more readily recycled. For many consumers, that was an important consideration, and the American Paper Institute was more than happy to exploit their concerns. The group rallied the nine-thousand-chapter-strong General Federation of Women's Clubs to fight for what one of the group's leaders called "the all-American paper bag." "We have to speak out against over-packaging and we must demand environmentally sound package choices," GFWC leader Margaret England declared. George Makrauer, "Plastic Bag Wars and Politics," unpublished history shared with author.

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"
Once we started getting the Krogers
": Author interview with Peter Grande, September 2008.

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people used somewhere between
: That's the estimate used by Reusablebags.com.

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The average American
: Based on estimates that Americans consume about 90 billion bags a year and the U.S. population is about 300 million.

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as DuPont had encouraged
: Meikle,
American Plastic,
250.

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"
clear plastic bags
": "Cleaning Plastic Bags,"
New York Times,
May 8, 1956. When Imperial Chemical Company introduced the first polyethylene bags, the bags were costly enough that each pack came with instructions as to how they could be washed for reuse. Author interview with Chris Smith.

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the average American throws out
: Daniel Imhoff,
Paper or Plastic: Searching for Solutions to an Overpackaged World
San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 2005), 9; EPA,
Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling and Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures for 2008.
It is perhaps not a coincidence that between 1960 and 1980 the amount of solid waste in the United States tripled.

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"
It provided battles
": Daniel Weintraub, "Into the Battle,"
Orange County Register,
June 11, 2000.

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According to Murray
: Author interviews with Mark Murray, September and November 2008, June 2010.

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take up much less space
: In studies of various landfills by William Rathje's Garbage Project, plastic packaging and goods consistently took up 20 to 24 percent of all garbage when first sorted, and 16 percent after it had been compacted. William Rathje and Cullen Murphy, "Five Major Myths About Garbage and Why They're Wrong,"
Smithsonian
(July 2002). More recent waste studies by the EPA show plastics constitute about 12 percent of the total waste stream, while paper makes up 31 percent.

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bag ban proposed in Fairfield
: Kirk Lang, "Fairfield Panel Recommends Trashing Plastic Bags,"
www.connpost.com, August 13, 2009
.

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Archaeologist William Rathje
: Rathje's work in landfills supplied valuable ammunition for the plastics industry in the 1980s. The industry sponsored his research and widely disseminated his findings. Plastic-bag makers used his findings to bolster their case against paper bags, said Seanor. "We probably gave his videos and stuff like that to every retailer in the country."

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The environmental implications
: For instance, a 2010 proposal to ban bags in California was sponsored by Santa Monica's Heal the Bay, and environmental groups were a major part of the coalition that supported the measure.

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Zero waste
: Author interview with Robert Haley, Zero Waste manager, San Francisco Department of Environment, October and November 2008. Also Elizabeth Royte,
Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash
Boston: Little, Brown, 2005), 255.

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at least four times
: Robert Lilienfeld, "Revised Analysis of Life Cycle Assessment Relating to Plastic Bags,"
ULS Report,
March 2008, accessed at
http://use-less-stuff.com/research.htm
.

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forty-six-billion-dollar tourist industry
: Green Cities California,
Master Environmental Assessment on Single-Use and Reusable Bags,
issued March 2010, 15.

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explained Leslie Tamminen
: Author interview with Leslie Tamminen, July 2010.

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2008 international beach cleanup
: Ocean Conservancy,
A Rising Tide,
9. All told, bags made up 12 percent of all the litter collected, second only to cigarette butts. Interestingly, one of the sponsors of these annual beach cleanups is Dow Chemical, a leading producer of polyethylene resin, the material from which T-shirt bags are made.

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A study in Los Angeles
: Los Angeles County Department of Public Works, "An Overview of Carryout Bags in Los Angeles County" (August 2007): 24.

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Complying with the mandate
: Californians Against Waste, "The Problem of Plastic Bags," CAW website, accessed at
http://www.cawrecycles.org/issues/plastic_campaign/plastic_bags/problem
.

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they had very practical reasons
: Author interviews with Haley.

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levied a fifteen-cent fee
: Bags dropped from about 45 percent of all litter to 0.22 percent in 2004, according to Frank Convery et al., "The Most Popular Tax in Europe? Lessons from the Irish Plastic Bags Levy,"
Environmental and Resource Economics
38 (September 2007): 7. South Africa and Hong Kong have adopted similar fees.

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about as socially acceptable
: Elisabeth Rosenthal, "Motivated by a Tax, Irish Spurn Plastic Bags,"
New York Times,
February 2, 2008.

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The plastax generated
: Convery et al., "Most Popular Tax," 9. In later years, the fee was increased.

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"
it would be politically damaging
": Ibid., 2. Industry often points out that in the wake of the plastax, Irish imports of plastic garbage bags and polyethylene film increased substantially—from 26.3 million metric tons in 2002 to 31.6 million in 2006. Bag defenders often portray that increase as an "unintended consequence" of the ban. But that sidesteps the fact that the point of the tax wasn't to eliminate all plastic bags, just the ones contributing to litter. And garbage bags don't have the litter impact of the lightweight shopping bags.

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the plastics industry
: Tim Shestek, lobbyist for the American Plastics Council, quoted in Suzanne Herel, "Paper or Plastic: Pay Up,"
San Francisco Chronicle,
November 20, 2004.

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end run around the city
: This occurred during a period in which the grocers had agreed to voluntarily reduce their distribution of plastic bags if Mirkarimi would table the proposed fee for a year. The understanding was that if the stores succeeded in significantly decreasing the numbers of bags they gave out, the city would shelve its fee plan. Author interviews with Haley, Ross Mirkarimi, San Francisco Board of Supervisors, December 2008. See also Charles Goodyear, "Deal to Reduce Plastic Bag Use Hits the Skids,"
San Francisco Chronicle,
January 18, 2007.

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the explosive effect of limiting cities' choices
: Author interviews with Murray, Haley, and Mirkarimi.

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cities around the country
: See, for instance, Mark McDonald, "Dump the Plastic Bag?"
Philadelphia Daily News,
September 18, 2007; Carolyn Shapiro, "The Flap Over Plastic Shopping Bags,"
The Virginian-Pilot,
March 10, 2008; and Kyle Hopkins, "Tundra Trash: Bethel Prohibits Plastic Bags,"
Anchorage Daily News,
July 21, 2009.

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Walmart became the new FDA
: Marc Gunther, "Wal-Mart: The New FDA,"
Fortune,
July 16, 2008.

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Sixty Minutes phenomenon
: Roger Bernstein, vice president of state affairs and grass roots, American Chemistry Council, interview with author, October 2008.

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"
righteous simplicity
": Joe Eskenazi, "Baggage,"
San Francisco Weekly,
January 5, 2009.

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"
This is not a wacko group
": "Purge the Plastic Plague,"
Die-Line
: The Newsletter of the California Film Extruders and Converters Association, January 2005.

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a spokesman for the group commandeered
: Steve Toloken, "APC, Calif. Clash on Marine Debris Issue,"
Plastics News,
December 6, 2004.

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industry polls showing
: As late as 2007, an industry poll found that half the respondents considered the bag fights and other battles over plastic packaging that were occurring in California as irrelevant outside the state or an overreaction. The fact that so many in the business "think we don't have a serious problem ... makes me wonder if the real problem is literacy, complacency or both," Pete Grande, a Los Angeles-based maker of plastic bags, complained in an editorial in the newsletter
Die-Line
in March 2007. Most of the California bag makers who were speaking out about marine debris did not actually make T-shirt bags; they made bags for produce or restaurants or department stores. But they feared any backlash against T-shirt bags would eventually reach their products.

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"
Our industry has been really slow
": Author interview with Robert Bateman, September 2007.

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annual revenues of more than $120 million
: According to its 2006 tax return, revenues were $122.8 million. And in 2008, the new head of the ACC referred to its budget being four times that of his prior employer's $30 million operating budget. Mike Verespej, "New ACC Head Discusses Challenges Ahead,"
Plastics News,
July 28, 2008.

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Society of the Plastics Industry
: In 2007, the SPI's operating budget was $7 million, down from $30 million a decade before; the group has since made further staffing and budget cuts. See Mike Verespej, "SPI Shake-Up Concerning Some Members,"
Plastics News,
August 13, 2007, and "SPI Cuts Staff, Reorganizes Amid Downturn,"
Plastics News,
July 13, 2009.

156
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"
their ox wasn't getting gored
": Seanor quoted in Mike Verespej, "Plastic Bag in Fight for Its Life,"
Plastics News,
March 16, 2009.

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about $1.2 billion
: Estimate by Isaac Bazbaz, head of Superbag Corp., one of the nation's largest T-shirt-bag manufacturers. Author interview with Bazbaz, August 2008.

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they called a meeting
: This account of the meeting is based on author interviews with Seanor and Bazbaz. The bag operations of Vanguard and Sunoco were subsequently bought by Hilex Poly, which is based in South Carolina.

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various of the companies contributed more
: Isaac Bazbaz of Superbag reportedly spent more than one million dollars on PBA efforts. Brett Clanton, "Bag Makers Defend Plastic,"
Houston Chronicle,
December 1, 2007.

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a full-time job for Johnson
: It was also an eye-opening experience, according to Seanor and other colleagues. He'd begun the job hostile to the environmentalists' complaints about plastic pollution. After a year, he'd begun thinking that the plastics industry as a whole should pay into a fund devoted to mitigating the problem of plastic debris in the ocean. He died before he had a chance to develop the idea.

157
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plastics-related legislation
: Keith O'Brien, "In Praise of Plastic,"
Boston Globe
magazine, September 28, 2008.

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"
We are at the tipping point
": Quoted in Meg Kissinger and Susanne Rust, "Plastics Fights Back with PR,"
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,
August 22, 2009.

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Consumption of paper bags shot up
: Eskenazi, "Baggage."

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prior success as a campaigner
: Author interviews with Joseph, July 2008 and June 2009. See also Luscombe, "Patron Saint."

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a man who knew how to champion
: Author interview with Pete Grande.

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news article in the London Times
: Mostrous, "Series of Blunders."

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Life-cycle analyses
: At least a half dozen LCAs of bags have been done, in Europe, Australia, South Africa, and the United States. For a roundup and links to the most credible ones, see Lilienfeld, "Revised Analysis," March 2008.

159
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"
the only thing civilized
": Tom Robbins, quoted in Diana Twede and Susan E. M. Selke,
Cartons, Crates and Corrugated Board: Handbook of Paper and Wood Packaging Technology
Lancaster, PA: DEStech Publications, 2005).

160
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"
karma's a bitch
": Gene Maddaus, "The Plastic Bag Lives on in Manhattan Beach,"
LA Weekly,
January 27, 2010.

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such lawsuits, or threats of lawsuits
: For instance, the city of Fairfax, a small town of seven thousand people and two grocery stores, was sued when it passed a bag ban in 2007. Town leaders withdrew the proposal rather than endure a court battle or do a full-blown environmental report. But Fairfax leaders found a different way to banish the bags, by putting the ban proposal to voters through a ballot initiative, which doesn't require the same environmental-impact review. Voters approved it in 2008.

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it confirmed what Joseph had been saying
: Green Cities California environmental-impact report, 2010.