Lehman Students Praise Bag Ban

(Photo Credit: The Islands’ Sounder)

By Zarin Siddiqua

Since March 1, New York has banned single-use plastic bags in stores, and many Lehman students say it’s about time. The “Bring Your Own Bag” (BYOBag) law is designed to promote the use of reusable bags. According to the Department of Environmental Conservation, 23 billion plastic bags are typically used each year in New York.

However, state officials won’t enforce New York’s controversial plastic bag ban until May 15 due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, according to Daily News. Enforcement was originally postponed to mid-April after New York business owners filed a lawsuit claiming they didn’t have time to prepare for the ban.

The National Conference of State legislatures reported that California was the first state to approve this law in 2014; Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Oregon, and Vermont followed in 2019.  Countries such as Kenya, France, United Kingdom, Rwanda, and Italy started banning and taxing single-use plastic bags in 2016.  

Even though the ban will not be in effect until May, some Lehman students are already reducing the use of plastics in their daily lives and they welcome the BYOBag law.

“It’s about time that the United States banned plastic bags. I hope they also do the same for plastic straws. I have been persuading my family to use reusable bags for years now,” said Brecenia Diaz, Lehman junior psychology major. “Global warming and pollution have been affecting the earth much longer than COVID-19. Even though this virus is very dangerous, we should still care about saving the planet.”

“My family and I have been reusing bags for a while. We usually do our grocery shopping in bulks from stores like BJ’s or Costco and just carry it to the car,” said Jocelyn Infante, a psychology major and Lehman sophomore. “I believe that BYOBag New York will encourage others to follow this trend and impact others to bring reusable bags in order to not spend 5 cents every time.”

“I really hope that this plastic bag ban becomes worldwide. I also hope they ban other plastic items like straws and utensils,” said Roxan Turner, a junior English major. “I have seen customers who get really angry about paying that extra 5 cents for a bag, but they need to realize how good this is to the environment.”

Statistics show that plastic is the major cause of death in marine animals and birds.

The United Nations stated that an estimated one million marine birds and 100,000 marine animals are killed each year due to the ingestion of plastic. 

Studies in The University of Queensland in Australia showed that green sea turtles in the 21st century ingest twice the amount of plastic that they did 25 years ago. Since 1950, only 9 percent of an estimated 8.3 billion of produced plastic is recycled, Global Citizen reported. 

Plastic waste and other trash. (Photo Credit: LiveKindly)

The National Geographic wrote that if the waste of the plastic increases, by 2050 there will be 12 billion metric tons of plastic in landfills. According to Waste Management, only 1 percent of plastic bags get recycled, and that’s only 15 bags.  

Many corporations have already made the switch. Stores such as Adidas, Ikea, Wholefoods, Pacsun and Trader Joes use paper bags; as well as wholesale clubs BJ’s and Costco, who instead reuse manufacturer-boxes to accommodate customers purchased-items, as reported by Earth911, an environmental news source.

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), which includes the Central Park Zoo, New York Aquarium and Bronx Zoo, prohibited the use of plastic and switched to bamboo utensils since 2018 to protect animals and raise awareness of how plastic affects the environment.

“The earth is our home, and yet people are not taking care of it,” said Saheda Akhter, biology graduate student. “This ban on plastic should have been placed years ago.”