At tens of thousands of shoreline cleanups across
the Unites States in recent years, volunteers logged each piece of litter they
pulled from the edges of lakes, rivers and beaches into a global database.
One of the most common entries? Plastic bags.
But in places throughout the United States
where plastic bags require a fee or have been banned, fewer bags end up at the
water’s edge, according to research published Thursday in Science.
Lightweight and abundant, thin plastic bags
often slip out of trash cans and recycling bins, travel in the wind and end up
in bodies of water, where they pose serious risks to wildlife, which can become
entangled or ingest them. They also break down into harmful microplastics,
which have been found nearly everywhere on Earth.
Using data complied by the nonprofit Ocean
Conservancy, researchers analyzed results from 45,067 shoreline cleanups
between 2016 to 2023, along with a sample of 182 local and state policies enacted
to regulate plastic shopping bags between 2017 and 2023.
They found areas that adopted plastic bag
policies saw a 25% to 47% reduction in the share of plastic bag litter on
shoreline, when compared with areas without policies. The longer a policy was
in place, the greater the reduction.
“These policies are effective, especially
in areas with high concentrations of plastic litter,” said Anna Papp, one of
the authors and an environmental economist at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology.
The research accounted for different types
of policies, including complete bans, partial bans that allow some thicker
plastic bags considered “reusable,” and charging shoppers fees for bags at
checkout. They found that complete bans and fees led to greater reductions in bags
on shorelines than partial bans.
The total amount of plastic bag debris found
on shorelines in areas with and without policies increased over the study period
but the increase in areas with plastic bag bans and fees was significantly less
than those without.
“It’s blowing down the rate of plastic bag litter,” said Kimberly Oremus, another author and an environmental economist at the University of Delaware. “It’s not reversing it. It’s not eliminating it.” (Christina Kelso)
沒有留言:
張貼留言