OPINION:
Earlier this year, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill into law prohibiting single-use plastic bags. The state is now considering a ban on single-use plastic containers by government agencies and contractors.
The apparent mistake is assuming that all plastic use is created equal. Consider that emergency access to purified drinking water in a plastic bottle fills a higher societal need than a plastic tub containing yogurt or butter.
More than 15,000 households in Newark, New Jersey, don’t have access to clean water. Lead levels in the tap water are 107 times higher than the federal standard. And while Newark residents could access purified water through less eco-friendly containers, the environmental impact of cans, glass or “juice boxes” is more harmful than plastic and often not understood.
When compared to plastic, the production of aluminum cans produces 12 times more CO2, the leading contributor to climate change. The strip-mining process used to extract the bauxite ore required to produce aluminum is definitely not eco-friendly. And the production and transportation of glass and boxed water containers contribute about seven and three times more CO2, respectively, than plastic.
It gets worse: While boxed water containers are technically recyclable, they are made with a combination of paper, plastic and aluminum. Most Americans don’t have access to centers that are capable of handling them — including most of New York State. Plastic water bottles are 100 percent recyclable. Each of the alternative containers are also heavier than plastic bottles, meaning they leave a larger carbon footprint during transportation.
Supporters of New York’s plastic ban argue the policy is needed to combat the “eight million tons of plastic waste [that] ends up in the ocean.” Fair enough. But, while plastic ocean pollution is undoubtedly a problem, there’s little New York can do about it. About 75 percent of trash in the Atlantic can be traced to Chinese merchant vessel dumping. What about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? National Geographic indicates the vast majority of that waste is discarded fishing gear and netting — not single-use plastic bottles as we’re led to believe. Rivers are also a major source of ocean trash. Up to 95 percent of plastic ocean pollution from rivers comes from Asia and Africa. Not the Hudson.
Plastic is highly recyclable, as are glass bottles and aluminum. Yet, we’re throwing these things out instead of reusing them. If you want to help fight trash, take a moment every day to think about what you could recycle. The recycling rate in New York City is 17 percent. Literal mountains of waste are generated in New York every day. “Ban single-use plastic” is a good bumper sticker to catch the eye of Americans who are passionate about the environment. But they’re being hoodwinked.
Some readers will recall the one memorable line in the 1967 movie “The Graduate,” where Dustin Hoffman is advised to get into the growing industry, “plastics.” That suggestion today might be “Recycling.”
• Richard Berman is the president of Berman and Co., a public relations firm in Washington, D.C.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.