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Loading...Mexico City Bans Plastic Bags
Earlier this week, Mexico City became the second largest metropolis in the Western Hemisphere to outlaw the distribution of plastic shopping bags.
Hailed as one of the fastest ways to cut down on solid waste, the new ordinance will affect thousands of retail stores and almost 19 million people living in the district and surrounding communities that make up greater Mexico City.
In good circumstances, high-density polyethylene will take more than 20 years to degrade. In less ideal circumstances (landfills or as general refuse), a bag will take more than 1,000 years to degrade, according to Reusit.com.
Mexico City is just one more in an ever-growing list of large urban areas banning plastic bags, which are costly to produce, environmentally destructive, and toxic when buried in a landfill.
In March of 2007, San Francisco enacted an ordinance that gave supermarkets six months and large chain pharmacies about a year to phase out the bags. Los Angeles is set to impose a similar ban if the state of California does not enact a statewide 25-cent fee per bag by July.
Around the world, plastic bags are either completely banned or significantly taxed in: South Africa, Eritrea, Rwanda, Somalia, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, several cities in India, China, Ireland, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, and Holland. Both the United Kingdom and Australia are considering similar measures.
People who might like to recycle their plastic bags find that they are unable to mix them in with normal curbside materials. In many cases, bags can be recycled at the store from which they originated, but many doubt that these actually make it to a recycling facility.
Although recycling bags is on the rise in the United States, an estimated 90 billion thin bags a year, most used to handle produce and groceries, go unrecycled (McClatchy).
Sign the petitions!
No More Plastic Bag Pollution!
Support a Plastic Bag Ban for the City and County of Santa Cruz
Read more: environment & wildlife, great garbage patch, landfill, mexico city, oceans, plastic bags, pollution
Image Credit: Flickr - Samuel Mann
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Go Mexico City! I wish the rest of the world would hurry up and do the same!
Great news.
Fantastic - Well Done Mexico! Now why cant we all do the same!! Sometimes apparently our garbage, supposed to be put in landfill, is dumped at sea. So the banning of plastic bags should stop the sea-plastic menace a little, and also stop the plastic bags that get blown into the sea, which kill turtles.
First the most dangerous Plastic Bags are the ones dumped in the Ocean instead of land fills were they are contained and can be managed . Next Reusable Heavy Duty Plastic could have been used years ago . Also Mandatory Municipal Recycling Plastic -- Period ! .
Cloth bags are made from Organic Fibers that must be grown there fore taking up resources especially water this alone opens up a whole new Industry ripe for abuse ! . Also Cloth bags have to be Washed Regularly
as they with hold germs and bacteria that will make cesspools of contamination ! .. B
all stores should have a promo period where they give out reusable bags with their store logo on it and then phase out the paper and plastic bags and charge for bags like IKEA and ALDI stores, sometimes if i forget my reusable bag i just carry my stuff or put it on my purse, i think more education needs to be given to store employees like at kroger where they still stare at me weird when i refuse the plastic!!!! are they serious??
Instead of plastic bags, plastic should be banned until or unless it is made biodegradable.
wow! this is great! go Mexico city, taking down their pollution
This is great news but I am even more excited to hear of all the other places around the world. I did not know this. I use fabric bags and also make the plastic ones I do come across now and then into heavier, longer lasting, larger bags to use over and over. With their life span, I figure a shopper can use them long after the fabric ones have fallen apart. It's a fairly simple ironing job, after cutting and stacking those you have gathered. If they won't get recycled by the store, and I can't find any other recycler near by, I figured why not just recycle them myself.
So, they banned them in Mexico City-now they can quit throwing them in the gullies on our border towns.
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