A state-funded study on single-use plastic bag bans, commissioned by a powerful state senator, cited an industry-sponsored expert and cited research funded by a bag manufacturer in the legislator’s backyard.
However, the report still found that a single-use bag fee would save consumers $82 million a year by removing nearly 2 million bags from circulation.
The study was ordered by Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre, who ordered this is at the last minute in the state budget for 2019.
The results were treated as a cause one-year ban regarding the introduction by municipalities of a ban on the employ of disposable plastic bags or charging fees. The ban was supposed to expire on July 1, but it did expanded for at least another year under the interim budget adopted slow last month.
Central Corman, Pennsylvania is home to Hilex Poly, a plastic bag manufacturer that employs 160 people in Milesburg, Center County.
After the ban was introduced, both research groups were tasked with looking at the effects of such policies on the economy and the environment. The Independent Tax Office he coped with the first and second Committee on Budget and Legislative Policy he took care of the latter.
Both reports were published on Tuesday and quote 2014 Clemson University study conducted by Robert Kimmel, a researcher at the university’s Center for Flexible Packaging.
The study was funded by Hilex Poly, while Center is the result of Clemson’s partnership with private companies that pay at least $30,000 a year for: membership.
In the study, Kimmel concluded that consumers “should have a choice between reusable and reusable bags.” [plastic bags] and that any of them should be preferred to paper bags.”
https://www.penncapital-star.com/blog/philly-council-passes-long-awaited-ban-on-single-use-plastic-bags/
“Reusable bags should only be preferred if consumers are trained to employ them safely and consistently and reuse them enough times to reduce their relative environmental impact compared to bags [plastic] alternative solutions,” we read in the report.
The report concludes with an acknowledgment of Hilex Poly’s financial support. In the email, Kimmel stated that he stands behind his research despite the funding.
The company “took a completely hands-off approach to influence our work and conclusions in any way,” Kimmel said in an email.
Clemson did not respond to a request for comment.
Kimmel is also quoted in the LBFC report, but is not named, claiming that plastic bags “represent a very small component of… litter found in storm drains and around commercial properties.”
In an email, Stephen Fickes, lead analyst for the LBFC report, confirmed the origins of the Clemson study.
“This fact does not discredit the analysis, in part because we used additional procedures to evaluate the work,” Fickes said.
The Independent Tax Office also used a study from one section to estimate how much bags could hold. This was one of five studies used.
In a statement, Kathleen Hall, lead analyst for the IFO report, said the office was aware of the origins of the Clemson study.
“We were mindful of sourcing bias in writing this report and tried to look at each parameter from multiple sources to avoid introducing bias into the report,” Hall said in a statement.
In an email, Corman spokeswoman Jenn Kocher said Corman did not tell either office “what research to use or where to look for information.”
Paper or plastic?
IN in a statement released Wednesday, Corman quickly used the study to argue that “changes to bag policies will not have the positive environmental impact people expect.”
Both reports “moved away from politics and emotion,” Corman said, and disputed the notion that single-use plastic bags are environmentally unsustainable.
Kimmel agreed. His research showed that consumers need to reuse a synthetic fiber bag 20 to 25 times to fit their needs global warming potential from the energy and materials used to produce a regular single-use bag. Both are made of plastic.
Kimmel added that consumer research conducted at the time showed that shoppers often forget about reusable bags. Case studies on local plastic bag policies analyzed by IFO have shown significant declines in the employ of plastic bags.
On the environment, the LBFC report does not make an argument against single-use plastic bags as an emerging issue.
According to United NationsSince the 1950s, 8.3 billion tons of plastic have been produced worldwide. Of this, 60 percent went to landfill or trash. Every year, humanity produces another 300 million tons of recent plastic waste.
However, in an email, Fickes wrote that “a The simple and clear conclusion we reached was that unintended consequences could result in a greater environmental impact of paper bags.”
Kimmel found that paper production, which requires a lot of water, has a greater impact on global warming than plastic bags made from natural gas.
The discovery even cost him Hilex Poly, Kimmel told the Capital-Star. By the time Hilex Poly was ready for publication, it “acquired a large paper bag manufacturer.”
Because its research “showed that paper bags are significantly more harmful to the environment than lightweight plastic bags,” the company “was no longer interested in helping us publish our work,” Kimmel told the Capital-Star.
Corman argued this further changes to plastic bag policy “will have a negative impact on our local economy.”
A careful reading of the IFO economic report reveals that Corman’s general claim is wrong.
In its report, the authority said any bans would have negative financial impacts by forcing companies or consumers to shoulder the costs of more steep paper bags or robust plastic bags.
But the office found that a 10-cent fee on lightweight plastic bags is the most effective solution, saving the average Pennsylvanian $6.40 a year — a total of $84 million — while reducing demand for nearly two million single-use plastic and paper bags.
The fee, IFO said, “incentivizes consumers who do not want to pay the fee to reduce their use of bags, but retailers are not forced to completely abandon the cheapest option.”
Kimmel’s garbage claim was also disputed in IFO’s own analysis.
LBFC cited data from 2019 state report on littering along the state’s roadsides and streams, claiming that the bags “represent a small percentage of Pennsylvania’s larger litter problem.”
The 3.5 million bags found on roadsides in Pennsylvania represent one-seventh of one percent of all bags half a billion pieces garbage in the Community.
However, that study focused on roadside litter, and the IFO said litter on city streets may look different than on interstate lanes. They cited Philadelphia in 2019 test found that plastic bags are among the five most common forms of garbage in the city.
Ongoing debate
The fight over plastic bags has been going on in Harrisburg since at least 2017.
In the same year, the General Meeting adopted a resolution Bill stopping local municipalities from banning or taxing plastic bags. All but one Center County lawmaker voted for the bill, except Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf vetoed This.
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has sparked recent arguments for the employ of single-use plastics as a tool to promote hygiene. The LBFC report cited concerns that diseases like the coronavirus could be transmitted through an uncleaned reusable bag, which Kimmel also raised in his interview with the Capital-Star.
According to Policyplastics lobbyists have made similar arguments to elected officials in the Trump administration.
Concerns have been heard. Grocery stores discourage the employ of reusable bags. Philadelphia, one of three Pennsylvania municipalities that regulate plastic bag regulations, announced it would delay implementing the policy in April.
Some scientists have begun to push back, as 100 experts from around the world did last week in an open letter: he argued that “based on the best available science and guidance from public health professionals, it is clear that reusable systems can be used safely when basic hygiene practices are followed.”
In general, the report of the Legislative Committee on Budget and Finance, which must be agreed to by the committee’s 12 legislators, received a little note. It was presented at the end of the hour-long meeting and adopted unanimously and without comments.
But the debate is unlikely to die down. The commission’s report included a survey of 1,022 Pennsylvania municipal leaders asking for their views on local plastics policy.
Respondents were evenly divided on whether a ban or fee would be an effective tool to regulate the environmental harm of plastics.
However, more than two-thirds agreed that the solution must come from Harrisburg, not the local borough or town council.
Fourteen states, including the Commonwealth, currently prevent local municipalities from enforcing plastic bag bans. Pennsylvania’s transient preemption policy will not be effective until July 1, 2021 at the earliest.
