Plastic Bag Tax in Oregon

Plastic Bag Tax in Oregon

Plastic is a synthetic material that is made from oil to produce some ordinary and daily items. It is useful and could be water bottle, tableware, even chair. In 1950s-1960s, plastic have begun to enter people’s life and became popular gradually. This material has many benefits: it is waterproof, cheap and durable. But plastic also has drawbacks: It releases toxic gas when it burns, causes white pollution, generates the landfill problem. This high polymer is difficult to degrade, needs hundred years then can decompose, especially when the hazardous chemicals of the plastic find the way into the people’s life, impact the ocean ecosystem and harm the wildlife. Overusing plastic lead more and more pollution to the environment and it cause national attention.

To stop the harm from plastic, some countries, like China, enacts a law that people have to pay 0.2 RMB (about 5 cents) to use plastic bags to carry products or bring own canvas bag to control the “white” pollution. Government also promotes people to refute, reuse and recycle plastic bags. In Oregon, United States, the legislature also try to impose a similar law which is people pay 5-cents tax on plastic bag due to the serious environmental problem. This implement has three main negative effects: Oregonians would be forced to find other resources to replace the plastic bags; the tax would make customers shop inconveniently; it would bring a massive financial burden to Oregonians.

If plastic bags are banned or taxed, customers in Oregon would be forced to purchase other resources like paper bag to carry items. Using paper bags might lead to the significant economic and environmental problems. Paper would cost more transportation fees and leave more carbon footprint than the plastic. According to the American Chemistry Council (n.d.), “the weight and volume of paper versus plastic bags has environmental consequences in their transport” That means, people would spend more on shipping paper bags rather than the plastic bags, which may bring a potential burden to the Oregonians. Furthermore, the paper bags could create the serious environmental problems are similar to plastic bags. In Chris Summers’ article (2012), “What Should be Done About Plastic Bags” says, “the UK Environmental Agency study points out that they have a higher carbon footprint than standard plastic carrier bags.” So what is carbon footprint? From the Wikipedia’s definition, the carbon footprint is: “the total set of greenhouse gas emissions caused by an [individual, event, organization, product]”(Wikipedia, n.d.) In other words, it is carbon dioxide that people daily generate. The carbon dioxide is the significant elements that cause the global warming. Thus, if people continue to use paper bags to replace the plastic bags, the economic burden on Oregon people would be heavier, and the world environmental problem would be more serious.

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