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Los Angeles Times
a day ago
- Science
- Los Angeles Times
Plastic bag bans seem to work, at least when it comes to shoreline pollution
Researchers find that nationwide policies to ban plastic bags may be paying off, with fewer showing up during coastal cleanups. Ever since their invention in 1959, plastic bags have become synonymous with shopping. For many people, it's difficult to imagine a quick grocery run without the crinkle of a plastic bag, and even harder to believe that using an alternative could make a meaningful difference in reducing plastic pollution — but a new national study suggests that, in many places, it already has. A 2021 global survey found that plastic bags accounted for 14% of 12 million marine litter items gathered during beach cleanups — making them by far the most common type of trash in the study. They're lightweight, rarely recycled, and easily caught and transported by winds, making them especially likely to end up in waterways, where they can persist for decades. This combination of durability and disposability has made plastic bags one of the most stubborn contributors to environmental pollution, particularly along coastlines. However, a growing body of evidence suggests that instituting regulations on plastic bag usage — where California has long been a national leader — has had a real effect on how often such waste shows up on and near beaches. In a study published Thursday in Science, researchers Anna Papp of Columbia University and Kimberly Oremus of the University of Delaware found that local and state plastic bag policies enacted from 2016 to 2023, including bans and fees, reduced by as much as 47% the share of waste consisting of plastic bags that is collected during shoreline cleanups. (California's state-wide rules requiring a $0.10 charge of reusable bags was passed in 2014, and went into effect two years later — though industry watchers largely say while the law was well-intended, its implementation has been ineffective.) The findings offer clear evidence that legislation can be used to curb plastic pollution — a growing concern as global waste generation is projected to more than triple by the end of the century . As of 2025, more than 100 countries have enacted national or local regulations on plastic bags, and 175 nations are negotiating what could become the world's first legally binding United Nations treaty to end plastics pollution, so such data may prove essential in determining what environmental policy strategies actually work. In the study, researchers analyzed information from more than 45,000 beach cleanups conducted between January 2016 and December 2023 that is in a database maintained by the Ocean Conservancy, an environmental advocacy nonprofit. The researchers then cross-referenced the data with 182 local bag policies enacted over the same time period in ZIP Codes that had shoreline cleanups, and then applied a series of statistical methods to isolate the effects of these policies. They found that plastic-bag litter dropped significantly in areas with bag laws, even as the national share of plastic bags found during cleanups increased to 6.7% in 2023 from 4.5% in 2016. No similar decline was observed for other types of plastic litter, including plastic straws, bottles, caps and containers, suggesting that the effects were specific to the target policies and not coincidental due to general trends in plastic usages. Perhaps even more striking, the study found evidence suggesting that the structure of a given bag policy — whether it imposes a full ban, partial ban or a fee — played a crucial role in how much plastic waste it actually reduced. Full bans prohibit all single-use plastic bags at checkout, while partial bans primarily target thin, single-use plastic bags, often allowing for thicker plastic bags to remain in circulation as so-called reusables. Fees, meanwhile, charge customers a small amount for each bag they take at checkout. Although the study found that there were relative decreases in plastic litter as a result of both bans and fees, the magnitude of the decrease was larger for fee-based policies compared with full bans and especially partial bans, which were least effective. This suggests that how a policy is designed may matter as much as whether it exists at all — a key insight for lawmakers hoping to craft effective environmental legislation. California's history of efforts to curb plastic waste serve as a prime example of this finding. With the passing of Senate Bill 270 in 2014, which barred the use of single-use plastic shopping bags in many retail settings, California became the first U.S. state to enact a plastic bag ban. Although this ban initially reduced plastic bag litter, it only prohibited the use of bags thinner than 2.25 millimeters, permitting grocery stores and large retailers to charge for thicker plastic bags and ultimately leading to an unexpected jump in plastic bag waste. This is reflected by California's 2021 Disposal Facility-Based Waste Characterization study , overseen by CalRecycle, which reported that plastic bag waste rose to 231,072 tons in 2021 from 157,385 tons in 2014 — a nearly 47% increase. 'It was a nasty loophole,' said Meredith McCarthy, the senior director of community outreach and partnerships at Heal the Bay, a Santa Monica-based nonprofit that organizes coastal cleanups and advocates for plastic reduction policies. 'I think a lot of people were thinking: 'Wait, we banned it? And now we use more? How is that possible?'' Even so, McCarthy, who's spent 20 years monitoring trends in plastic pollution on Los Angeles beaches, said that even this imperfect policy has helped implement a noticeable change. 'It's almost rare now to find a plastic bag,' McCarthy said. The study also found evidence that plastic bag laws may reduce harm to marine life: in areas with bag policies, there was a 30% to 37% reduction in entangled animals relative to areas without such laws. Although the researchers caution that these findings are imprecise, in part because of the fact that we don't fully understand how wildlife interacts with plastic bags compared with other shoreline litter, the results do point to a potential environmental benefit of regulating single-use plastics. In September, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 1053 , banning all single-use plastic bags statewide. In theory, starting Jan. 1, 2026, such bags will disappear entirely from checkout lines altogether — meaning customers in California will need to use a reusable bag, pay for a paper bag, or hand carry their purchase. California's new ban won't solve the plastic problem overnight, but this research shows that the right kind of policy — one with stricter laws and fewer loopholes — can make a measurable difference. Want proof? Just head to your nearest beach.
CBS News
a day ago
- General
- CBS News
Do plastic bag bans and fees work? A new study says policies curb litter
State and local policies to regulate the use of plastic bags have significantly reduced how many of them are found littered along U.S. shorelines — potentially cutting that type of waste in half in certain places, a new study published Thursday in the journal Science found. More than 600 bag policies, along with records from more than 45,000 shoreline cleanups between 2017 and 2023, were reviewed by researchers to see whether implementing bans or fees on plastic bags led to fewer discarded bags found near coastlines, rivers and lakes – and if they did, to what extent. Co-authors environmental economist Anna Papp and Kimberly Oremus, a marine science and policy professor at the University of Delaware, found that the number of plastic bags collected as shoreline litter in places with bag policies dropped by at least 25%, and up to 47% over six years than in locations that did not have regulations. "When we found the database that had information on different shoreline cleanups, we realized we could look at the composition of litter before and after a policy to see what effect it had," Oremus said in a statement. "And then we could compare that to places that never got a plastic bag policy." These results bring fresh insights to an issue that gained prominence over the last decade or so, as awareness spread about the harms of plastic pollution and its threats to marine environments. Oremus said it's the first attempt to comprehensively review the effectiveness of plastic bag policies on shoreline litter, using a database of global shoreline cleanup initiatives from the nonprofit Ocean Conservancy. A plastic bag on the banks of the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C., on March 21, 2019. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images Since 2018, more than 100 countries around the world have implemented some form of policy to either ban or limit the use of plastic bags, according to a report by the United Nations Environment Program. The U.S. doesn't have a federal bag policy, but individual towns, cities and states have policies of their own. Some states, like New York, have completely banned retailers from distributing plastic bags. Others, like Washington, passed partial bans in recent years, where thinner plastic bags deemed "single use" are prohibited, but thicker plastic bags are not. Oremus and Papp noted in the study that, although those thicker bags are usually considered "reusable" under partial bans, "there is evidence that some consumers still treat them as single-use." In multiple states without bans, local jurisdictions such as counties have taken steps to regulate plastic bag use. For example, Arlington County, Virginia, requires stores to collect a fee from customers who purchase plastic bags, at 5 cents per bag. But 17 states prevent plastic bag regulations even at the county level, with statewide "preemption" laws in place to ensure the distribution of these bags isn't regulated at all. During the study period, plastic bag litter was collected less often in shoreline cleanups that took place in areas where some form of regulation existed to curb their distribution and use, the authors said. "Our findings make clear that plastic bag policies have been broadly effective in limiting—but not eliminating—shoreline plastic bag debris in jurisdictions where it was previously prevalent," Oremus and Papp wrote in the study. They also found evidence that suggests fees on plastic bags are more effective at limiting shoreline litter than bans, especially partial bans, but understanding why would require more research.
The Hill
a day ago
- Science
- The Hill
Plastic bag bans are helping clean up US coastlines: Study
Policies that have banned or imposed fees on plastic bags are leading to significant declines in plastic litter along U.S. shorelines, a new study has found. These state- and local-level regulations have brought about a 25 percent to 47 percent plunge in the proportion of bags in total coastal littler cleanups, in comparison to places that lack such rules, according to the study, published on Thursday in Science. 'There are so many pathways a bag can take from the checkout line at the store,' senior author Kimberly Oremus, an associate professor in marine science at the University of Delaware, said in a statement. 'It's great to see a policy that works in such a clearly measurable way,' Oremus added. Thin plastic shopping bags are one of the biggest culprits of plastic pollution on coastlines, as they have low recycling rates and often blow away in the wind — entangling animals and breaking down into harmful microplastics, the study authors noted. But as awareness around this issue has grown, more than 100 nations have implemented either bans or fees on the bags, the researchers explained. Oremus and the lead author, environmental economist Anna Papp, sought to gauge the effectiveness of such policies in jurisdictions across the United States. To do so, they combed through data of 45,067 shoreline cleanups available through an app called Clean Swell, which feeds into the Ocean Conservancy's Trash Information and Data for Education Solutions database. The researchers also examined 611 plastic bag policies enacted between 2017 and 2023 — investigating how these regulations have helped reduce plastic litter and comparing the effects of rules enacted at the town, county and state level. Not only did they find that the policies have led to 25 percent to 47 percent reductions in the share of plastic bags in coastal litter, but they also identified that this decrease surges in magnitude over time. Areas with bag rules also demonstrated a 30 percent to 37 percent reduction in the presence of entangled animals, although the authors noted that these results were imprecise. The researchers identified more robust impacts from state-level policies in comparison to town-level rules, with fees decreasing litter even more so than bans. They acknowledged, however, that more research would be necessary to understand those discrepancies. Also of interest to the authors was a finding that bag bans and fees more most effective in places where bag little was more severe to begin with. 'Overall, our findings do show that plastic bag policies are broadly effective in limiting litter along shorelines,' said Papp, who earned her Ph.D. in sustainable development from Columbia University. 'But it is important to keep in mind that this is a relative decrease in affected areas compared to areas without policies,' Papp added. Going forward, the authors stressed the importance of recognizing that plastic pollution in general is still growing, and that plastic bag policies can only reduce some associated impacts. With the United Nations Environment Program set to announce a new round of negotiations on an international plastic treaty this August, the researchers expressed hope for a more comprehensive solution to this problem. 'We're still getting more plastic bags on shorelines as a percentage of all the cleanup items over time,' Oremus said. 'It's not eliminating the problem, it's just making it grow more slowly.'
Washington Post
a day ago
- Science
- Washington Post
Plastic bag fees and bans help limit coastal litter, study finds
Plastic bag fees and bans are effective in limiting debris on U.S. shorelines, a new study reports, but even places with bag policies are seeing a greater prevalence of plastic bags on beaches and riverbanks. The study, published Thursday in the peer-reviewed journal Science, analyzed the relationship between policies on plastic bags and the litter collected in more than 45,000 shoreline cleanups. In communities with policies in place, the prevalence of plastic bags in the trash was 25 percent to 47 percent lower than in places without regulations. But plastic bags increased as a share of litter both in communities with policies and those without, the researchers noted. The policies appeared to contain that growth but not stop or reverse it. Measures targeting plastic bags aren't eliminating the problem, just slowing its growth, said Kimberly Oremus, one of the study's authors and an associate professor at the University of Delaware's School of Marine Science and Policy. The impact of the policies has been somewhat limited, Oremus said, because they can be patchy in what they regulate and are themselves a patchwork, with rules and enforcement varying from place to place. 'Most of these bans and fees don't cover every type of plastic bag,' she said. 'There's a lot of exceptions to them. It really depends on the state.' The goal of all these policies is the same: to limit the use of plastic bags, which can take centuries to decompose and, in the interim, can entangle wildlife and release microplastics and toxic chemicals into waterways. Some places have imposed 'bag taxes' or fees on customers using plastic bags. Other places have experimented with bans — though they might prohibit thin plastic bags (which are most likely to blow away and become trash) while allowing thicker ones, or they might leave restaurant takeout bags unregulated. Erin Murphy, manager of ocean plastics research at Ocean Conservancy, said the new report was 'the first large-scale study to systematically assess how plastic bag policies reduce the amount of plastic bag pollution in our environment.' Murphy was not involved in the analysis, but the researchers used her nonprofit group's data from shoreline cleanups between 2016 and 2023. That data provided a way to measure litter before and after policies were enacted and do comparisons with measurements in places without any regulations. Lead author and environmental economist Anna Papp said one of the key findings was the difference between broad policies, which appeared to limit plastic litter, versus partial bans, which resulted in the smallest and least precise effects. There was also some evidence that bag fees could have a greater effect than bans. But the researchers said that fees are also much less common than bans and that more research is needed to assess their relative effectiveness. The study also found that state-level policies had a greater impact than town-level measures, Oremus said. Larger-scale policies tend to be more robust, she said, because 'litter can travel between borders.' The analysis also showed that the largest reductions in trash occurred in places with high amounts of plastic bag pollution. 'Are you a place that struggles with litter?' Oremus said. 'Then, this might be a policy to consider.' Erin Hass, senior director of strategic alliances with the Plastics Industry Association, noted that plastic bags represent a fairly small portion of litter that winds up along U.S. shorelines. 'Even the study itself acknowledges that the top sources of beach litter are cigarette butts, food wrappers, bottle caps and beverage bottles — not plastic bags,' Hass said. 'Why are regulators isolating a single product while overlooking far more prominent contributors?' Bans could 'create unintended consequences,' Hass said. She noted that after the implementation of a bag ban in New Jersey, for example, thin plastic bags disappeared, but overall plastic consumption appeared to increase because of a switch to heavier reusable bags, which tended to be tossed after minimal use. 'If the goal is reducing marine debris and advancing sustainability, the smarter approach is to invest in scalable recycling systems, not sweeping bans that shift the problem rather than solve it,' she said.
Observer
2 days ago
- Sport
- Observer
Coach Ammar al Kathiri joins ICAB programme
MUSCAT, JUNE 18 The Oman Basketball Association has announced the nomination of national coach Ammar al Kathiri to participate in the International Coaching Apprenticeship in Basketball (ICAB) programme. The initiative is organised by the University of Delaware in collaboration with the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC), the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), and the World Association of Basketball Coaches (WABC), with full support from the Olympic Solidarity programme. The programme will run from June to November 2025. The ICAB programme is recognised globally as a leading initiative in developing basketball coaches, combining academic instruction with practical field experience. It comprises four interconnected phases designed to enhance coaching capabilities through a blend of theoretical and practical learning. The first phase is an online module delivered twice monthly, featuring specialised lectures and applied assignments aimed at reinforcing modern coaching concepts. The second phase involves a two-day in-person module held on the University of Delaware campus, including interactive workshops and direct engagement with top training experts from the US. The third phase is a hands-on field experience in which participants are integrated into NCAA Division I basketball team programmes. This phase offers close-up exposure to professional coaching methods and team management systems. The programme concludes with a final in-person unit where participants return to the University of Delaware to present their acquired knowledge and propose a professional development plan tailored to the needs of their home environments. Coach Ammar al Kathiri will travel to the United States to participate in the in-person components of the programme, with all expenses covered by the Olympic Solidarity programme. In an exclusive statement, Al Kathiri expressed his pride and gratitude for the opportunity, saying Who wouldn't dream of learning basketball from its very source in America? Living daily with NCAA teams and observing their operations closely is every coach's dream. This is truly a priceless opportunity. He also appreciated the support of the OBA and the trust placed in him by the Technical Development Committee, adding This experience will be a turning point in my coaching career. We will be exposed to the latest theories and practices in the basketball world, and we'll return with practical knowledge that can help develop the game locally. For his part, Abu Bakr al Jahwari, Vic-President of the Oman Basketball Association (OBA) and Chairman of the Technical Development Committee, stated Coach Ammar's nomination aligns with the Association's strategy to empower national talents and expose them to world-class training experiences. We believe this investment will positively impact the future of basketball in Oman. He added Our partnership with Olympic Solidarity and the Oman Olympic Committee in such programs offers Omani coaches a unique opportunity to gain exposure to advanced methodologies and contribute to building a strong technical foundation for Omani basketball.
