Das Verbot kostenloser Plastiktüten für Lebensmittel führte laut Studie dazu, dass Kunden mehr Plastiktüten kauften. Bezeichnenderweise blieben die durch die Plastiktütenregeln ausgelösten Verhaltensweisen bestehen, nachdem die Regeln nicht mehr in Kraft waren. Und einige Auswirkungen waren für die Umwelt nicht vorteilhaft.
https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2024/11/15/plastic-bag-bans-have-lingering-impacts-even-after-repeals
17 Comments
I’ve linked to the press release in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00222437241290157
From the linked article:
Plastic bag bans have lingering impacts, even after repeals
Banning free plastic bags for groceries resulted in customer purchasing more plastic bags, study finds
Regulations imposed to protect the environment may continue to have impacts even after they are repealed. And those lingering impacts include some that run contrary to the goals of the policies.
Such are the findings of a study published in the Journal of Marketing Research co-authored by UC Riverside marketing professor Hai Che that examined policies to curtail the use of single-use plastic bags in grocery stores and other retail outlets in Austin and Dallas, Texas—policies that were later repealed.
Significantly, the behaviors spurred by the plastic bag rules continued after the rules were no longer in place. And some impacts were not beneficial to the environment.
Che and his coauthors found an increase in sales of plastic bags after the cities prohibited stores from giving away free plastic bags for carrying home groceries. They quantified plastic bag sales by analyzing barcode scanner data on consumer purchases.
The customers crave the bags of plastic
I think it’s obvious that when they’re not given for free, people who want them will buy, increasing the purchases. But how did the total volume of used bags change?
We need to give people more time to adjust culturally on this. But I guess some people really just don’t care about plastic.
Americans confuse and frighten my European mind. Why didn’t you just do the logical thing and switch to paper? Why don’t you have reusable bags for groceries.
Edit: okay, someone please explain to me what your paper bags look like. In Europe we have ones with handles, that can be used at least 20 times if you don’t overload them or get them wet. I know they take more resources to make, but they are usually biodegradable which seems like a good balance.
Plastic grocery bags were used back at home for household waste. All it did was require us all to purchase plastic bags in bulk.
>A break-even analysis suggests that the net effect on plastic bag savings is likely positive even after repeal. Only modest reductions in grocery bag use would be needed to break even, suggesting a favorable outcome for the environment.
I despise the plastic bag bans. Those plastics bags had minimal impact compared to the reusable. And the paper bags are horrible. They are huge, fill up my whole trash can, and worse – they do not have handles and are impossible to carry. There is no consideration for accessibility. I used to reuse the plastic bags for all kinds of storage uses (I’m a teacher and have extra uses for them). Now, if I want compact long term storage, I have to purchase goddamn grocery bags from online.
I’m, in general, liberal, but I can see why so many folks are fed up with the liberals. They get this tunnel vision on some niche issues and won’t consider any other points of view.
Anecdotally the problem has been that shops that used to give away small, thin bags now make you buy bigger, thicker bags (to justify the sales price, and with the claim that they are re-useable), so you end up using more plastic if you don’t re-use the bags.
In my own case if I drive to the shops I keep bags in the boot which I can re-use, but if I walk to the shops I rarely carry a big re-useable bag with me, so end up buying a new one.
Your headline is misrepresenting the data in the article and study a bit. They said that there was likely a net positive effect on reduction of plastic usage from banning plastic bags and the subsequent repeal of the policies. They also were not able to gather data on burlap or canvas bags, which are popular now instead of single use bags. Lastly, they said that plastic bag bans caused people to buy more trash bags, because they had been repurposing single use plastic bags for their trash.
In my country when free plastic bags were outlawed decades ago there was a sudden drop in visible plastic pollution that has persisted till today. Plastic bag purchases obviously went up (0 is a hard number not to go up from) but those bags now have value so people don’t just chuck them on the ground as often.
More accurate info would probably be gleaned by studying any of the countries that banned free single use plastic bags decades ago.
TBH it is hardly that surprising that a study done in an area made rich by petrochemical extraction would want to downplay the effects of single use plastic reduction.
It continued after cause large grocery chains realized they were selling lots more plastic by not providing free thin reusable bags (they were always reusable, just not 100x more plastic than needed)
I remember when they didn’t even have plastic bags at the grocery store, it was all brown paper bags. Why not switch back?
The grocery bags that most people now use may be reusable to a certain degree but they are still made of plastic fiber that is unrecyclable and will end up in landfill.
What an odd headline. Of course banning free bags results in people buying more bags. The question is what the **net impact** on plastic use is, which is not addressed in the article.
In the UK, a nationwide ban on giving plastic bags away for free resulted in a [98% decline in the bags used by supermarkets.](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/31/government-urged-to-repeat-success-of-plastic-bag-charge) Of course consumers have had to buy more bags themselves, but these tend to be reusable bags. The change in policy was followed by [an 80% reduction in the plastic bags](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jul/29/number-of-plastic-bags-found-on-uk-beaches-down-80-since-charge-introduced) washed-up on UK beaches.
Anecdotally, most people in the UK are perfectly content to bring reusable bags to supermarkets. I notice people in offices who pop out to get lunch from a supermarket tend to just carry their purchases back without a bag.
Here in New Zealand, they just outright banned plastic bags. Everywhere uses paper bags instead now – and most major stores, at least, actually use good quality ones that are far less prone to breaking than the old plastic ones were.
Maybe they shouldn’t sell “reuseable” bags made from polyester (plastic).