While I have enjoyed the great privilege of growing up in Southern California, I am also deeply aggrieved by the deterioration of our beautiful environment that I have witnessed due to the steady increase of plastic debris among other things. In some communities, bans or restrictions on “Single Use” plastic bags have been enacted or are being considered to mitigate the numerous problems that they pose.
However, I want to speak now of the hidden direct costs to the taxpayers. Something a bit more tangible.
I won’t say anything in this post about the adverse environmental impact caused by this waste once it is lose in the environment. I’m just talking about the money for now.
While some People think of plastic bags as being free, they have actually cost the taxpayers of California billions (that’s right billions with a B) in waste management and environmental mitigation costs.
Here are some eye-opening statistics on single use plastic bags provided by Californians Against Waste.
In San Francisco for example, City officials estimate that they spend $8.5 million annually to deal with plastic bag litter. This equates to a 17 cents per bag cost to the taxpayers.
Altogether, California taxpayers spend $25 million annually to landfill discarded plastic bags, just the ones that remain in the controlled waste stream.
Here’s the big number though:
Southern California cities have spent in excess of $1.7 billion in meeting Total Maximum Daily Loads for trash removal in impaired waterways. Plastic bags are a significant contributor to this impairment.
What about boosting recycling efforts? Well it’s proven to be very costly for Single use plastic bags: Nobody is doing it because they can’t figure out how to in a cost effective manner.
In summary:
The manufacturers and distributors of this toxic “instant waste” expect the taxpayers of California to continue subsidizing their status quo. We can no longer afford that, we actually never could afford it,
the only reason we are paying it in the first place is ignorance, it would be insane to agree to a continuance of this robbery.