Archive: Opinions

I'm once again surprised that a proposal not based on science, but emotion would be in front of the Tompkins County legislature. This is the second time in less than a year that the Environmental Management Council has failed to investigate the science behind a proposal that will have far reaching negative impacts on our people and on our environment. It's unclear even today where the EMC drew its information from, if it looked at both sides of this issue, or if it just proceeded with a pre-conceived notion not based on science.

An advisory agency is supposed to advise the legislature, in essence doing work the legislature may not have the staff or time to do and yet, I find myself doing the investigative work they have failed to do. One would think that if you were investigating a plastic bag ban, you might pick up the phone and talk to the largest users of those bags. In this case I talked to Gary Woloszyn of Wegmans. A quick talk with him showed how this ban would raise the carbon footprint of shipping the bags to Tompkins County by seven-fold. Just look at the difference in volume. Also, wouldn't it be safe to bet that people who throw away plastic bags now will throw away paper bags. That's just that much more volume filling your landfills.


Wegmans is a standout when it comes to recycling and has their own manager of sustainability. Here's what he has to say:

I am writing in response to your request for input regarding the County's PDEQ Committee's recent recommendation to the county legislature for a proposed statewide ban on plastic bags.

It has long been Wegmans' position that unintended consequences come from banning anything. And, we are not in favor of adding fees or taxes that may burden our customers to solve environmental issues and concerns.

We know from experience that it's possible to reduce the use of single-use plastic bags by educating customers about reusable bags and reminding them to bring plastic bags back to our store for recycling. This coupled with the use of plastic bags made from recycled plastic will have a much greater impact in the long run. Wegmans uses a true closed-loop recycling program:

Our plastic bags are made from 40 percent recycled plastic that is returned to our stores by our own customers, and our recycling rate for plastic bags averaged close to 50 percent in 2017.

When it comes to limiting the bagging options available to consumers, it's important to fully understand the impact of each option on the environment:

• Increasing the use of reusable bags is by far the best way to reduce the number of paper and plastic bags being used. However, it's important to consider the additional resources it takes to manufacture reusable bags. If not used by consumers on a regular basis to replace paper or plastic bags, reusable bags are not better for the environment, and they are also not recyclable. 

• Plastic bags are the second-best option for the environment when looking at the science. They are made from natural gas, not oil, and are very light compared to reusable and paper bags, requiring fewer trucks for transportation. 

• Environmentally, paper is the least preferred of the three bagging options. Paper bags are heavier and take up more space; it takes seven tractor trailers to transport the same number of paper bags as plastic bags carried by one tractor trailer. It also takes about 90 percent more resources and energy to make paper compared to plastic. Due to the chemicals used in the manufacturing process, paper is also very harmful to our waterways. And while paper bags are biodegradable, they won't actually biodegrade if they end up in a landfill because of a lack of oxygen.

As you can see, there are many factors that go into selecting the best bag for the job and our planet. For all the reasons and factors stated above, Wegmans doesn't believe banning or taxing certain bags is a solution to the problem. Please feel free to contact me directly with any questions.

Sincerely,
Jason Wadsworth
Manager of Sustainability | Wegmans Food Markets, Inc.

The primary problem with plastic bags is if they end up in the ocean, marine animals eat them as they look like food. I understand plastic pollution in the oceans is a severe problem.  I'd also like acknowledged that 95 percent of the plastic pollution in the oceans comes from 10 rivers, none of them in the United States.  We do a pretty good job of recycling and I don't know why we don't use that knowledge for the increased recycling of plastic bags instead of a ban.  Wegmans as they said already have bags made from 40 percent recycled material. It's also highly unlikely that if you switch to paper, that those will come from all recycled paper, that a lot of them will end up in landfills, and they take just as long to breakdown as the plastic bags taking up a lot more space.

-Mike Sigler, Tompkins County Legislator, Lansing

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