Texas' Attempt to Ban Plastic Bag Bans Fails!

I am happy to announce with that the attempt by two Texas Legislators to limit local rule on plastic bag ordinances has failed in the Texas Legislature leaving local communities able to tackle plastic pollution on their own terms!  This was the result of a joint effort by all 5 Texas Chapters of the Surfrider Foundation and the Texas Campaign for the Environment.

This now leaves the door open for proposed plastic bag bans in Austin, Corpus Christi and Galveston to be passed and join South Padre Island, Brownsville and Fort Stockton as communities that have adopted plastic bag bans in an effort to reduce litter and plastics litter in their areas!  The passage of more plastic bag ordinances within the state of Texas is now imperative in the next 2 years so that Texas Legislators that supported the ban on plastic bag bans will be forced to defend actions that were taken in their districts to take care of their environment.

Ironically, Senator Troy Fraser who introduced the Senate version of the plastic bag ordinance ban was named as one of Texas Monthly's worst legislators for the 82nd Texas Legislative Session.  He actually introduced legislation that would give incentive to grow the states burgeoning solar energy industry but then failed to support the legislation himself.

South Padre Island, TX Bans The Bag!!

 I have waited a very long time to post something like this. Very stoked....

Last night, January 5th, the South Padre Island City Council unanimously voted yes on a proposed plastic bag ban making South Padre Island the second city in Texas to pass such an ordinance!  The ordinance which prohibits the point of sale distribution of non-compostable plastic bags and allows for the use of reusable bags, recyclable paper bags that are not made from old growth trees and are composed of at least 40% post consumer recycled content and compostable plastic bags will go into effect as a voluntary ban on February 1, 2011 and would become mandatory on January 1, 2012.

The City Council Board Room was filled with individuals that supported the ban and many made comments including the Surfrider Foundation South Texas Chapter and Sea Turtle, Inc.  All City Councilpersons made comments that the feedback that they had received had been overwhelmingly positive.  However, some concerns were brought up.  The first and foremost was the impact on businesses and the expense of changing over from the old bags.  The Council resolved this by directing city staff to explore ways to aid these businesses in the conversion over the next year which included possibly having the city purchase a large amount of reusable bags with Hotel Occupancy Tax funds that would be branded with the SPI logo and then sold at little cost to interested businesses.  Another concern was a possible future suit against the city by the American Chemistry Council on the ban.  Councilman Sam Listi was heard saying, "Bring it on!" at the raising of this concern!

I would like to personally thank Councilwoman Alita Bagley, Environmental Health Director Victor Baldovinos for all of their hard work in getting this ordinance to the city council and especially thank everyone who spoke and emailed the council in favor of the ban!

THANK YOU SOUTH PADRE ISLAND!!

Disposable Bio-Bombs; A South Texas Tradition!

Disposable Diapers. To me these are the scourge of the beaches here in South Texas. It is not uncommon to walk our beaches here on South Padre Island at the peak of summer and see two, three or even five used disposable diapers lying in the sand. Most of the time in the proximity of a nearby trash barrel. Many times in the immediate vicinity of those who threw them there. I have lived here most of my life and have never understood and probably never will understand why these little bio-bombs can't seem to make it in the trash can or even more desirably taken out with those who produced them.

Rise Above Plastics concentrates on single use plastic containers. Typically these are assumed to mean plastic bottles and shopping bags. What about the disposable diaper? Perhaps this is not a noticeable problem on the West and East Coasts of the United States. In the past few months I have been asking people that I have met from California and other places on the West Coast if this is a problem. The majority can not remember ever seeing a disposable diaper on the beach, must less used, except here in deep South Texas.

So as a fellow Surfrider Foundation Activist who just so happens to live in a region where it is sociably acceptable to throw your used disposable diapers on the beach, in the water and on the floor of the public shower, I bring you some scary facts about what I consider the third leg of the plastics consumption threat; non-biodegradable disposable diapers.

• The back sheet of these diapers are made of polypropylene. This is a plastics polymer that can be used both as a structural plastic or plastic fiber.
• According the The Texas General Land Office's Adopt-A-Beach program these diapers may take up to 300 years to degrade. Therefore, as with most plastics, all disposable diapers ever made still exist today! This includes places such as landfills, beaches and in our oceans!
  
• In the United States alone, over 18 billion diapers are thrown away each year
• Over 82,000 tons of plastics are used to make those disposable diapers every year
• In most countries, including most states in the United States, it is illegal to dump human waste in landfills. It is definitely illegal to dump them on our beaches in all coastal communities. However they do end up in both places with the potential to spread polio, hepatitis, dysentery and other serious disease!
  

As a "humorous" side note Huggies makes a line of disposable diapers called "Little Swimmers". These diapers are designed so that babies and toddlers can go in the water and not have their traditional disposables soak up the water and sag. On the FAQ section of the Huggies website a question asks,

Are HUGGIES® LITTLE SWIMMERS® swimpants biodegradable?

The answer:

No more or less so than disposable diapers. In modern landfills, most materials, including food and yard waste, degrade very slowly, if at all, due to the absence of air, moisture and sunlight. Disposable diapers make up less than 2 percent of landfills, compared to 40 percent for paper (e.g. old newspapers, office waste).

Awesome! The swimming pants that are made to be disposed of and used in recreational water-use such as at the beach are not even biodegradable and beach friendly.

Mind blowing isn't it!