To regulate the use of plastic bags, the state and local policies have reduced significantly that how many of them are found in garbage along the shore – potentially cutting that type of garbage in some places, a new study published on Thursday in the journal, cutting that type of garbage in half. Science found.
More than 600 bag policies were reviewed with a record of over 45,000 noise cleanups between 2017 and 2023, the researchers reviewed to see if the ban on plastic bags was banned or implemented at least the bags found near the coast, rivers and lakes – and if they did, to what extent.
Co-writer environmental economist Anna Papp and Kimberly Oremus, a maritime science and policy professor at the University of Delaware, found that the number of plastic bags collected in places with bag policies fell to at least 25%, and in places up to 47% in more than six years, which did not have rules.
Oremus said in a statement, “When we found the database that had information about different noise cleanups, we realized that we can see the creation of the garbage before and after a policy that it had an effect.” “And then we can compare places that never got a plastic bag policy.”
These results bring fresh insights on an issue that has gained prominence in the last decade, because awareness about the loss of plastic pollution spread and Its threat to marine environmentOremus stated that this is the first attempt to extensively review the effectiveness of plastic bag policies on the coastline litter using a database of the global coastline cleaning initiative from the non -profit ocean convention.
Brendon Smilowski/AFP through Getty Image 
Since 2018, more than 100 countries around the world have implemented some forms of policy to ban or limit the use of plastic bags. According For a report of the United Nations Environment Program. The US does not have a federal bag policy, but individual cities, cities and states have their own policies.
Some states have completely banned like New York Retailers By distributing plastic bags. Others such as Washington pass partial restrictions in recent years, where thin plastic bags are considered “single uses”, but are not thick plastic bags. The study mentioned in the study that, although those coarse bags are generally considered “reusable” under partial sanctions, “evidence that some consumers still consider them as single-use.”
In many states without a ban, local courts such as counties have taken steps to regulate the use of plastic bags. For example, Arlington County, Virginia, Shops require to collect fees From customers who buy plastic bags, per bag at 5 cents. But 17 state also prevents plastic bag rules at county levels, to ensure the distribution of these bags with the statewide “premation” laws that not all have been regulated.
The authors stated that during the period of study, the plastic bag was collected less frequently in the cleaning of the coastline that occurred in areas where some forms of regulation to curb their distribution and use were present.
The study has written in the study, “our findings clarify that plastic bag policies have been effective in limiting widely – but not that they were not eliminating the Shortin plastic bags debris in courts, where it was previously prevalent.” They also found evidence that fees on plastic bags suggest that coastline is more effective in limiting garbage than restrictions, especially partial restrictions, but understanding why more research would be required.
