Why Bozeman needs a bag ban
For the 56,123 people in Bozeman, MT, a typical year with a plastic bag ban would result in:
16,612,408 fewer single-use plastic bags that won’t pollute our environment.
Those bags would stretch 2,884 miles laid side to side.
Eliminating those bags would save the 83,727 gallons of oil needed to produce them.
Plastic bags are free to consumers but are costly to municipalities, agriculture, and the environment.
The fossil carbon required to manufacture 14 plastic bags would fuel a passenger car for 1 mile.
Plastic bags are largely unrecycled. Multiple investigations using electronic tracking devices have demonstrated that even when plastic bags are collected, they may be diverted to landfills and incinerators.
Plastic bags placed in recycling bins end up clogging recycling machinery, forcing expensive shut-downs. One recycler has estimated that it cost an additional $9,500 a month in labor to untangle plastic bags from equipment.
Plastic bags clog sewers, snag in trees, and blow into water bodies, requiring expensive cleanup.
According to one study, communities on the west coast are spending more than $520 million each year to combat litter.
When plastic bags blow or are dumped on grazing land they can be eaten by ruminants such as cattle, causing intestinal impaction, sickness, and death.
They can also snag on crops,
Plastic bag bans are effective. They reduce litter, protect agriculture and the environment, lower municipal clean-up costs, and are easily embraced by consumers.
