The need to end the use of single use plastic bags is vital to the long term health of our planet, our water, and Minnesota communities.
Americans use 100 billion plastic bags a year, which require 12 million barrels of oil to manufacture. Minnesotans throw away more than 500 tons of plastic bags and packaging every day. The MPCA states that in Minnesota plastic bag recycling is less than 10%. It is estimated that 22 million pounds of plastic pollution enter the Great Lakes annually.
Plastics are made up of roughly 13,000 different chemicals, with 3,200 of those being listed as chemicals of concern. Health impacts from the chemicals in plastic include cardiovascular disease and stroke, infertility, cancer, thyroid problems, obesity, diabetes, and more.
Plastic bags are also costly to taxpayers. One study estimated the cost of plastic bags to taxpayers, including:
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Contamination of recycling stream
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Plastic bags get caught in machinery in recycling facilities, where they slow down sorting, contaminate product to be sold on the recycling resale market, and can even cause fires.
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Collecting and disposing of bags
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Removing bags from streets
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Processing in landfills
This totaled 17 cents per individual plastic bag - only from easily calculable municipal costs.
In 2015, the Minneapolis City Council took steps to ban the use of plastic bags at grocery and retail stores in Minneapolis in an effort to reduce plastic pollution. Unfortunately, despite passage of the ordinance in 2016, the legislature took action in 2017 and passed language prohibiting cities from banning the use of plastic/disposable bags. Currently, Minneapolis and Duluth both charge a 5 cent fee for plastic bags within their city limits in an effort to encourage the use of reusable bags.
Local municipalities deserve the right to local control, especially when the decisions in question impact public health and safety and the water we drink. Clean Water Action is working to remove the plastic bag ban preemption in Minnesota statute, which will return local control around this issue back to where it belongs - with each city and town in Minnesota.
Ending the plastic bag preemption will protect Minnesota waters, keep thousands of toxic chemicals out of our environment, save taxpayer dollars, and restore local control and autonomy.
