03-02-2013, 09:41 AM
One interesting thing to note, this ban is still very new, yet last months cleanup data is showing that it is reducing the amount of plastic bags collected as litter... granted this is just a one month total, and only for the small amount of monthly cleanups that do fill out the cleanup data sheets...
As the main goal was to reduce the amount of plastic bag litter & waste, it will be interesting to find out how/if/ wether people in this county really are changing the the way these bags have been used as litter & waste, or if the February data was an anomaly...
Perhaps a measure like this is what it takes to get enough people in this county to not litter enough to make a measurable difference (how long have we all been told not to litter....and yet until there is a monetary incentive...and a high enough incentive...there is litter & waste....)
AFWJAM, I agree that people should do the right thing without someone else (ie. government) telling them.... but having been involved in cleanup & waste product initiatives around the globe for 4 decades...
The reality is that people will waste resources unless they find a reason to treasure them... and as long as people see things as "free" they see no reason not to toss them....and enough people see no reason currently not to toss those things out as litter....
You would think after 4 decades of the global earth movement messages, people would not feel so free to litter.... but that is not the reality we actually live in.... if you can figure a way out of this dilemma without utilizing government, please do the action & get people to stop the plastic bag litter....
As the main goal was to reduce the amount of plastic bag litter & waste, it will be interesting to find out how/if/ wether people in this county really are changing the the way these bags have been used as litter & waste, or if the February data was an anomaly...
Perhaps a measure like this is what it takes to get enough people in this county to not litter enough to make a measurable difference (how long have we all been told not to litter....and yet until there is a monetary incentive...and a high enough incentive...there is litter & waste....)
AFWJAM, I agree that people should do the right thing without someone else (ie. government) telling them.... but having been involved in cleanup & waste product initiatives around the globe for 4 decades...
The reality is that people will waste resources unless they find a reason to treasure them... and as long as people see things as "free" they see no reason not to toss them....and enough people see no reason currently not to toss those things out as litter....
You would think after 4 decades of the global earth movement messages, people would not feel so free to litter.... but that is not the reality we actually live in.... if you can figure a way out of this dilemma without utilizing government, please do the action & get people to stop the plastic bag litter....