Mexico City has recently joined a growing list of cities in banning single-use plastic bags after a law that targets the shopping staple went into effect on January 1st, 2020, according to the Associated Press.
Under the new law, businesses that still give out plastic bags will be fined, and companies that make plastic bags banned from selling them in Mexico City.
Another ban on other single-use plastics, like straws and plastic dishes, is set to go into effect in 2021.
Other countries that have banned disposable plastic bags include Italy, China, Bangladesh, many countries in Africa, including Rwanda, Kenya, the Congo, and South Africa.
Mexico City has been having problems with excessive amounts of trash for many years now. Plastic has only recently become recyclable in the city, meaning that the vast majority of discarded plastic has probably ended up in landfills or has contaminated the environment.
Plastic pollution is a universal problem, especially in marine environments. Marine animals such as whales and turtles have died after mistaking plastic for food, and 50 trillion microplastics pervade the ocean.
Plastic bags are among the most common forms of marine pollution. Only 5 percent of single-use plastic bags get recycled.
Approximately eight million tons of plastic waste makes its way into the oceans annually, which has impacted almost 700 species, as the National Geographic reports.
As the scale of plastic pollution is becoming a more obvious, local, state, and national governments are now beginning to restrict plastic production.
Hundreds of municipalities across the globe have instituted plastic bag bans, including Mexican cities like Querétaro and Tijuana, as Mexico News Daily reported.
Plastic bag bans have been proven to significantly reduce the number of plastic debris discovered in marine environments.
Several critics argue that plastic bag bans can have unintended consequences, and do not address the deeper problem of plastic packaging. One concern is that plastic bag bans will merely lead consumers to use single-use paper bags. The most important thing is to incentivize consumers to not only ditch plastic but to shop with reusable bags instead.
In the case of Mexico City, the grocery stores will be offering reusable shopping bags for about 75 cents.
COMMENTS