By Hayden Sweeney 

The College Park Committee for a Better Environment (CBE) proposed a ban on single-use plastic bags in retail at the mayor and city council meeting on November 15. 

Some municipalities in the Washington DC metropolitan area placed a ban on plastic bags in retail settings. Now, College Park could be the next municipality to follow suit.

CBE member Todd Larsen hopes the city will put an ordinance in place in early 2023. This would create a six-month period before the ban would take effect, giving retailers time to sell their remaining plastic bags or switch to a different material.

The proposal also requests that retailers be required to place a tax of up to 10 cents on paper and other bags to encourage shoppers to bring their own reusable bags.

“We estimate that College Park residents are using nearly 20 million plastic bags annually,” said Larsen. “If people bring their own bags, you’re cutting down on litter and waste.”

Takoma Park is one of the local municipalities that already have a plastic bag ban. 

“Single-use plastic is wasteful and can be avoided by using reusable bags,” said Takoma Park Director of Public Works Daryl Braithwaite.

Shoppers worldwide use over 1 trillion plastic shopping bags annually, the CBE estimates. Five percent are recycled.

In grocery stores that provide plastic bags, 75% of customers take them, according to the CBE. At College Park Lidl, which does not provide plastic bags and offers reusable “Green Bags,” 78% of customers bring their own bag or leave without a bag.

Larsen says eliminating plastic bags is a simple and easy way to reduce plastic pollution, given that society functioned without using plastic bags for a long time.

“Plastic bags are a very recent innovation, so it is very easy to go back to where we were before,” he said.

Plastic bags are a major pollutant in waterways and pose a serious threat to wildlife. They are among the top five products collected in beach cleanups across the U.S., according to the CBE.

“I definitely think [a plastic bag ban] is needed. The number one pollutant in our Anacostia Watershed is physical trash including plastic bags,” said Annette Spivy, an environmental science and policy professor at the University of Maryland. “And it’s a global issue. It has an impact on international waters.”

At least 14 million tons of plastic end up in oceans every year, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Plastic debris makes up 80% of all marine debris from surface waters to the deep sea. 

Unlike other forms of waste, plastic doesn’t decompose. Instead, it breaks into smaller pieces called microplastics, which marine animals consume, according to Spivy.

“I think the big problem is when things like plastic bags break down into smaller products,” Spivy said. “Mothers (of marine animals) are feeding their young plastic and it’s killing them.”

More than 1 million marine animals are killed each year due to plastic debris in the ocean, according to Conserve Turtles.

The CBE estimates that encouraging the use of reusable bags will eliminate over 60 tons of single-use bag waste per year. In places that enacted plastic bag bans, consumers’ use of reusable bags increased dramatically.

Eleven states and more than 500 localities in the U.S. have carryout bag laws in place.

“The impact (plastic pollution) has on wildlife is devastating,” Spivy said.

Featured Image: Paper and plastic bags in the checkout line of Lidl in College Park on Baltimore Ave. on Sunday Dec. 18, 2022. Photo by Hayden Sweeney.