Jolie Lo's Resources
Resource One
According to the article "S.F. first city to ban plastic shopping bas" from SFC.com; there is a ban of plastic bags at large supermarkets and chain pharmacies. 50 years ago, plastic was a more environmentally friendly alternative from paper bags. However, each year, there are 180 million plastic bags distributed in San Francisco. That becomes a serious pollution problem due to the difficulties with recycling plastic bags. A 17-cent tax charge was proposed two years ago, but it seems to not be useful. Therefore San Francisco will start to ban plastic bags and set a higher tax on them in order to solve the serious plastic bag pollution.

Goodyear, Charlie. "S.F. First City to Ban Plastic Shopping Bags; Supermarkets and chain pharmacies will have to use recyclable or compostable sacks." SFGate. 28 March 2007. 21 March 2008. <LINK>.

Resource Two
According to the evidence shown in the web site for The Pacific Protection Initiative by "Heal the Bay", plastic causes serious environmental problems and financial problems. We all know that too many plastic bags can directly destroy our land and marine life. Besides, plastic bag litter costs cities huge amounts of money to clean up. It is said that "In 2004, the City of Los Angeles waste characterization study demonstrated that in only 30 storm drain catch basins, plastic bags were 25 percent by weight and 19 percent by volume. In San Francisco alone, where a plastic bag ban ordinance has been adopted, City officials estimate that they spend $8.5 million annually to deal with plastic bag litter--that equates to roughly 17 cents for every bag distributed in the city. It costs the state $25 million annually to landfill discarded plastic bags. Public agencies in California spend in excess of $303 annually in litter abatement. Southern California cities have spent in excess of $1.7 billion in meeting Total Maximum Daily Loads for trash in impaired waterways."

It also shows that usually government use recycle programs and plastic bag taxes in order to decrease the seriousness of plastic bag litter. However, they claim that recycling cannot keep peace with the increasing volume of the throw-away bags. Therefore, many places have begun to set higher plastic bag taxes and hope to solve the plastic bag problem.

"Plastic Bags." The Pacific Protection Initiative. 2007. 21 March 2008. <LINK>.

Candice Gleason's Resources
Considering where I previously worked, at Nijiya Market located in Japantown of downtown San Jose, I decided to interview a former coworker on the plastic bag usage at the store. We tended to use a lot of plastic bags to the point where some of us commented on how much of a waste it seemed to be. Here's an interview I conducted with one of those coworkers, Jackie Chan.

Q: What did you think of using individual plastic bags for certain items (e.g. tofu and meat products) when you helped bag items for customers at Nijiya?

A: Those products can't really be helped, I mean, it's smarter to use plastic bags for those products cause it's moist or wet sometimes. Unless there's some other type of bag that can be used that can be equally beneficial, that I can't think of at the moment.

Q: Do you think, that in terms of the sturdiness of plastic bags we used, that paper bags may have been more efficient to bag customer's items?

A: Depends, if it had handles on the paper bags, then probably yes. It would be more efficient since plastic is more flexible and paper bags are more stiff in comparison.

Q: What was your reaction whenever a customer brough in their own bags for you to put their purchased items into?

A: I guess it's okay, but the problem is that employees must keep track on who leaves or what not because it could seem as if they stole stuff if they wanted to walk back into the store... despite having the receipt, it would still be troublesom, unless they figured out a better system, then, it could work.

Q: Do you think it was a good idea on the Nijiya company to enact the distribution of reusable bags either for free, after purchasing $30 worth of items, or for a fee of $5?

A: No, I think it should be given whether upon the degree of items. If it was a lot, they should issue them one, otherwise, use paper bags or etc. I mean either way, who would want to buy bags to use for groceries. Society here isn't used to that way of shopping, in regard to the $5 fee.

Q: Okay, here's a situation: in the state of California, about 600 plastic bags are issued every minute and the materials used to make these plastic bags pollute the environment. Not only that, but for some people, those plastic bags are often wasted after they've served their purpose. Considering how part of society is concerned with the issue of global warming and pollution, what do you think would happen if the government were to enact a ban on plastic bag distribution and make grocery stores distribute reusable bags to customers?

A: I think it's fine, just that, the bags might get dirty if they're used a lot. Might have to wash them and stuff (laugh). But if they are banned, will garbage bags be banned too? (laugh)

Chan, Jackie. Personal Interview. 20 March 2008.

Julie Dinh
"Paper Bags Are Better Than Plastic, Right?" Reusable Bags. 2003. 21 March 2008. <LINK>.

Ricky Chan
Mansfield, Melissa. How to Live Without Plastic Bags. March 2006. 15 March 2008. <LINK>.

natural-environment.com. Eco Friendly Grocery Bags. 13 Janurary 2008. 15 March 2008. <LINK>.

Christy Ng
"They're made from petroleum or natural gas with all the attendant environmental impacts of harvesting fossil fuels. One recent study found that the inks and colorants used on some bags contain lead, a toxin. Every year, Americans throw away some 100 billion plastic bags after they've been used to transport a prescription home from the drugstore or a quart of milk from the grocery store. It's equivalent to dumping nearly 12 million barrels of oil."

"According to the Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation, more than a million birds and 100,000 marine mammals and sea turtles die every year from eating or getting entangled in plastic. The conservation group estimates that 50 percent of all marine litter is some form of plastic. There are 46,000 pieces of plastic litter floating in every square mile of ocean, according to the United Nations Environment Programme. In the Northern Pacific Gyre, a great vortex of ocean currents, there's now a swirling mass of plastic trash about 1,000 miles off the coast of California, which spans an area that's twice the size of Texas, including fragments of plastic bags."

I tried to use evidence from this blog entry to convince the audience that using plastic bags are actually burning money since the plastic bags that we use are equivalent to 12 million barrels of oil. Also, marine animals are innocent, so I hope this research could emotionally convince people to stop using plastic bags.

Mieskowski, Katharine. "Plastic bags are killing us. 10 August 2007. 15 March 2008. <LINK>.