This whitepaper is from 2014 and is still just as true. The great garbage patch is also a myth, perpetuated by a fake photo that usually runs with the story in the news.
They banned plastic bags in Chicago. The thin ones. All that happened was now every store gives you a free "reusable bag." These new bags are the same bags as before, but thicker. They are not reusable bags. So in this town it's very clear the regulation was a net negative on reducing plastic consumption.
I understood the "great garbage patch" is not an actual island, but more of a vast stew of what is essentially plastic plankton. Mostly invisible to the naked eye, certainly not solid, but probably more environmental toxic than a mythical plastic island.
Interesting. Here in Holland they banned the free thin plastic bags everywhere a while ago. To buy a plastic bag of any kind costs about 10 eurocents.
Judging from my own behavior as a rather lazy consumer and from observing the people around me, it seems to have been pretty effective. Most of the people around me bring a bag to the store and personally I buy many fewer 10c bags these days.
Pretty much the same situation in Germany. That paper really only applies to the US, in Europe the whole shopping culture is so different it's hardly comparable.
Starting with the fact that Europe is much less car focused, which leads to more trips with smaller amounts being bought each time. The more condensed European cities lend themselves to that kind of behaviour, since the trips are going to be pretty short and likely to be made on a bike, walking, or using public transport.
From my experience, I would estimate maybe 20% of checkouts include a 10c bag, the rest just use their own backpacks, cotton bags or the reusable sturdy kind of plastic bags. I don't even know when I last saw someone buy multiple 10c bags to carry their groceries.
And when going shopping with the car: put everything back in the shopping cart, take the cart to the car, load everything in the car (e.g. in boxes in the trunk), 0 bags and 0 carrying needed.
There's an EU directive that states that countries must work towards decreasing the use of disposable bags. How they do it is up to them, so you will find various solutions, from outright forbidding them to requiring some payment.
AFAIK, you still can get free plastic bags if they are part of necessary packaging, for example on farmer's markets.
"Member States may choose to exempt plastic carrier bags with a wall thickness below 15 microns (‘very lightweight plastic carrier bags’) provided as primary packaging for loose food when required for hygiene purposes or when their use helps prevent food wastage."
Basically, this "law" is more effective in some cultures than others.. (My wife studied in .nl long enough to adopt some Dutch habits, and now she demands I bring a bag every time I go to the store.)
In L.A. we've had a ban for a long time. The thin bags are banned, so they are all thick bags now. And stores are also required to charge at least $0.10 per bag.
Everyone I know just pays for the new thicker bags. It's $0.30 for three bags on a $100 grocery bill.
The real annoyance comes from people not knowing exactly how many bags they need, and usually guessing too low (not wanting to be wasteful), so the baggers take longer trying to figure out how to squish everything in the bags... and sometimes the customer has to pay an extra $0.10 if they need another bag. Which gets them to dig around for a dime. This probably slows down checkout lines by a significant amount (10% or so?).
Also in LA. The main thing I notice is people bringing their own cloth or plastic bags into the store. I have not noticed the "dig for a dime" thing. People do spend more time fitting stuff into their bags.
This always blows my mind about the US shopping. Baggers. And greeters. I fail to understand how there can be any unemployment :D
I self checkout my groceries (the scanning and payment as well as the bagging). Normally I interact with zero people while shopping for groceries.
High payroll taxes and near 0% cash use makes it a natural direction to go.
I bag the groceries in the store so that costs no extra time at checkout.
My friend and I estimate an extra 45 seconds at every checkout for this stupid tax. I say this because they always ask (regardless if you brought your own bags) if you want new bags and it'll cost $0.10. Couple that with the fact on average people visit three stores per week, make an average of $60/hour and that there are roughly 7 million people in the bay area and you get this bag tax costing the bay area an estimate:
$15,750,000 per week in lost productivity from wasted time at check outs
(.75 minutes per checkout X 3 times per week / 60 minutes per hour) X $60 an hour average salary X 7 million people
To me the tax is insane and doesn't help the environment. It just got voted on and passed too. Just force paper bag use, and the environment would be cleaner. Simple, it'll save the economy and do more.
I realize this seems like an (and is likely a slight) over estimate of the cost. However, you can do it yourself, we waste a lot of times due to this.
Your assumptions on typical behavior do not match my experiences. I normally bring my own bags, and because of that, I pack the bags while the clerk scans the items (as opposed to having that person do both tasks). This greatly increases the speed to checkout. And more often than not I see the same behavior from others who also brought their own bags (and at least in SF, bringing your own is very common).
Also, I worked in retail when I was younger. Most bigger stores keep an eye on the lines and will move more employees to the checkout registers if the lines are getting too long.
I believe the average is around $35 / hour, then you have to add the cashier cost which is $20-$30. The cashier cost is $20 for salary plus $10 for benefits.
It is worse than that, because now there is often an awkward sharing of responsibility where customers start to pack their own bags, then stop to pay, and the cashier/bagger isn't sure whether to take over, and usually doesn't
Mostly agree, though worth pointing out in your analysis that the median household (not person) makes an aggregate of $25/hr, not $60. The average American is over twice as poor as the assumption you made in your calculation. In the bay area alone it's better, but still only around $35/hr, about 50% poorer. Median household income is like 70-75k in the bay area.
I included the cashier cost, because the store will need to hire more cashiers if they have longer lines. That's an estimated $20 for salary and $10 for benefits or $30 / hour per cashier
I don't it usually on average it takes me roughly 10-15 seconds to have the interaction:
"Do you want the bags? That will be 10 cents"
"Ugh, yeah - give me three please"
Then occasionally I screw up and need another. Or the bag rips because I have too few. That takes like an extra 4 or 5 minutes plus money. Plus if I'm doing it on an automated machine there is usually a lot of lag.
Regardless it's not just the 15 seconds for me. There is a rough average of 2 people in line ahead of me so:
15 seconds for me + 30 seconds for others ahead in line
In some cases, the burden could affect business owners more than customers, if they open more checkout stands to account for longer delays to maintain a similar level of service.
Interesting - do they at least give you less of the "reuseable bag"s?
On that note, whenever I've seen these bans I always assumed they worked similar to what Aldi's does around where I live (And I presume everywhere): They have no bags at all, and simply have things like discarded boxes that you can use to carry your food out with. You can purchase an actual reusable bag, but besides that there are no bags. That said, I can see how that might be tough for stores with more customers, and in places where you may be carrying your food a ways and not just to your car. Being from a suburb in Ohio I can't say I know tons about living in Chicago ;) But the setup does work well over here and absolutely decreases the number bags. Aldi's is the only one that does it though.
They banned plastic bags in Chicago. The thin ones. All that happened was now every store gives you a free "reusable bag." These new bags are the same bags as before, but thicker. They are not reusable bags. So in this town it's very clear the regulation was a net negative on reducing plastic consumption.