Plastic shopping bag policies are actually working, a new study suggests
That extra fee at the grocery store for a plastic shopping bag isn't just an inconvenience –– it is actually making a difference for marine ecosystems, according to a new study.
Policies that ban or impose fees on plastic bags are associated with a 25% to 47% decrease in plastic bag litter in shoreline cleanups, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science.
Plastic litter is a big risk to the health of marine ecosystems, and the problem is growing, said lead study author Dr. Anna Papp, an environmental economist and incoming postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The United States has no federal-level policy on plastic bags, so researchers analyzed 180 local programs, including full bans, fees on shopping bags and partial bans –– which sometimes have special regulations such as requiring thicker plastics to make shopping bags reusable.
Researchers then analyzed data from more than 45,000 US shoreline cleanups to compare the litter before and after the policy was passed as well as the differences between areas with and without a policy, Papp said.
'The main finding is that these policies led to a decrease in plastic bags as a share of total items collected,' she said.
Other studies have shown that plastic bag policies affect how many bags consumers use, said Dr. Erin Murphy, manager of Ocean Plastics Research for the Ocean Conservancy.
But this most recent research 'really takes it to the next level, showing it's not only reducing the amount of bags we're using, but it's actually achieving our broader objectives of environmental cleanliness,' she said.
Plastic bag pollution is harmful to both animals and humans.
On beaches or other outdoor spaces, plastic pollution can have a negative impact on tourism or the value of spending time in nature, Papp said.
Plastic bag litter is particularly dangerous to marine animals for two reasons, Murphy said. First, they enter the environment more easily than other types of plastic.
'They're hard to recycle, they're single-use, and they're lightweight, and so they blow very easily in the wind. Even if we're trying to properly manage them, it's easy for them to escape waste management systems and get into the environment,' she said.
Second, once they enter the environment, plastic bags can lead to population-level effects on marine species, Murphy said.
Many species, including marine mammals and sea turtles, will eat the plastic bags, obstructing the gastrointestinal tract and preventing them from eating until they die, she said. Plastic bags can also entangle wildlife, keeping hatchling sea turtles from reaching the ocean and shading coral reefs, all of which can lead to disease and death for marine species.
'In 2024 alone, our International Coastal Cleanup volunteers cleaned up over 500,000 grocery bags from the environment and 500,000 other plastic bags, totaling more than a million different plastic bag types from the environment,' Murphy said. 'They're always in our top 10 items found in the environment, and that alone is an issue.'
While bans and fees on plastic bags are helping, they are not eradicating the problem, Papp said.
'Plastic pollution is a growing global problem,' she said. 'The overall percentage of plastic bags is still increasing … This increase is just slower in places with policies.'
The evidence suggests some policies are more effective than others: Full bans made a bigger impact than partial bans, and fees seemed better than bans, said study coauthor Dr. Kimberly Oremus, an associate professor at the University of Delaware School of Marine Science and Policy.
'One hypothesis is that in at least some cases, the revenue from fees is being used to further reduce litter. In Washington, DC, for example, they use the revenue from plastic bag fees to clean up river shorelines,' Oremus said.
However, the hypothesis has not been investigated, and there is not yet enough data to say for sure that fees are more effective than bans, she said.
More must likely be done outside of these policies as well, Papp said. The United States needs regulations not just on the consumption of plastic bags but also on the production and supply of them, she added.
There are also steps you can take so your plastic shopping bag doesn't end up in the environment, Papp said.
For one, if you do use a plastic bag, don't let it fly away and create litter. Then, properly dispose of it — for example, you can take it to a plastic bag recycling station, she said.
And you can always go back to the three R's, said Dr. Rebecca Taylor, an assistant professor of agricultural and consumer economics at the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign.
Reduce the number of plastic bags you use, reuse them when you can and recycle them when you must.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Times
14 hours ago
- New York Times
Where Do Untraceable Fishing Fleets Go?
For centuries, the oceans have been a notoriously lawless place. And today's industrial fishing vessels can sometimes be sneaky, turning off public tracking devices for months at a time or altering their signals to give a false location. Recent advancements in satellite technology have made it possible to detect more of these ships that may be trying to hide. Known as 'dark vessels,' they make up at least 70 percent of all fishing fleets on the ocean. Two research groups used this data, provided by the nonprofit Global Fishing Watch, to track truant ships across millions of kilometers of so-called marine protected areas, zones officially designated by countries as part of international goals to protect 30 percent of oceans by 2030. Their studies, published Thursday in Science, offer the first answers to a longstanding question: Do these protections work? 'When most people think of protected areas, they assume it bans industrial fishing as a bare minimum of protection that a place would offer,' said Jennifer Raynor, an assistant professor of natural resource economics at the University of Wisconsin and lead author of one of the studies. 'But that's not necessarily true.' Only 8 percent of the ocean is protected by these zones, and most do not explicitly ban industrial fishing. According to Marine Protection Atlas, less than 3 percent of the ocean fully bans industrial-scale activities, like trawling or deep sea mining. Global Fishing Watch's tool uses satellite radar technology, which can scan through clouds and detect large metal objects on Earth, as a way to reveal oceangoing vessels that don't broadcast their location. One group found that two-thirds of all fishing fleets in protected areas were untracked by conventional means. Dr. Raynor and her co-authors analyzed nearly 1,400 protected zones with explicit bans on industrial fishing. They found about five fishing vessels per 100,000 square kilometers at any given satellite sighting, compared with 42 in unprotected coastal waters. About 30 percent of the area they studied showed one day of fishing or less in a given year. But because many of the unique designated zones are small, the vast majority of marine protected areas have almost no fishing activity. That's good news, she said, because it suggests illegal poaching in these zones is 'surprisingly rare.'Some larger protected areas also had less fishing than expected. In Australia's Great Barrier Reef, which bans industrial fishing in about a third of its 350,000 square kilometers, the researchers detected an average of 900 hours. In the Chagos Archipelago, an expanse encompassing several small island atolls in the Indian Ocean, the study also confirmed reports of illegal fishing. There, in an expanse nearly six times as large as the protected part of the Great Barrier Reef, fleets spent 2,700 hours, or about 112 days a year. The second study, lead by Raphael Seguin, a Ph.D. student studying marine ecology at the University of Montpellier, France, shows that while protections appear to be working on paper, it may not necessarily be because fishing vessels are trying to abide by the rules. The marine protected areas with the strictest restrictions are often located in areas that already were too coastal or remote to be industrial fishing hot spots, he said. Mr. Seguin's analysis found that two-thirds of all industrial fishing fleets in 6,000 protected areas were untracked. Nearly half of all marine protected areas included in his study showed industrial fishing activity, in many cases matching unprotected waters nearby. Dr. Seguin said this indicates the need for more marine protected areas with stricter standards. Otherwise, he said, countries are just creating 'paper parks,' a phrase used by researchers to describe protected zones where the restrictions aren't effective. Fleets can break the rules in other ways, too. According to Dr. Raynor's analysis, a type of fishing net known as gill nets are allowed in the Camargue, a protected zone off the coast of France, but nearly 100 percent of fishing there is likely done by bottom-trawling, which is banned. Boris Worm, a marine ecologist professor at the University of Dalhousie in Canada, reviewed the studies but was not affiliated with them, and said that together they show protections can work well, but more are needed. He said that well protected areas can revive commercially important fish stocks, as well as protect pristine ones. Two decades of strict protections around the Galápagos brought an added bonus for tuna fishers who lined up at the edge of the reserve boundary, he said. 'They're reaping the benefits of tuna being relatively unbothered within the reserve,' Dr. Worm said. 'It's like you're turning on the tap inside, and at some point it starts overflowing.' Dr. Raynor said the monitoring advancements have been a 'game changer in how much we understand about the ocean, even beyond protected areas.' Previously countries primarily kept track of large boats on the ocean through a transponder-like identification system, though not all vessels are required to use them. Last week, Global Fishing Watch announced an upgrade to its satellite monitoring database, which can detect smaller vessels and collect more information about their activities. 'It's such a change from history,' Dr. Worm said, 'when the things that humans did on the oceans went largely unseen.'
Geek Wire
14 hours ago
- Geek Wire
UW researchers discover AI-powered breakthrough that could boost precision cancer treatment
The co-lead authors of a study publishing today in Science describing AI-designed proteins for target health theraphies, from left: Julia Bonzanini, Nathan Greenwood and Bingxu Liu. All are researchers with UW Medicine's Institute for Protein Design. (IPD Photo) A breakthrough in the science used to customize the treatment of cancer and other diseases is so promising that researchers at the University of Washington are planning to launch a company to commercialize the technology. The strategy uses artificial intelligence to create proteins that recognize and bind to specific markers on diseased cells, creating what are essentially biological neon signs that attract immune cells to destroy the targets. The research comes from the lab of Nobel laureate David Baker and UW Medicine's Institute for Protein Design, which Baker leads, and is being published today in the journal Science. Additional study authors come from multiple UW departments, the Garcia Lab at Stanford University, and the Scheinberg Lab at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. 'Detecting unhealthy cells is one of the main jobs of the immune system, but it doesn't always notice the subtle signs of cancer or viral infection,' Baker said in a statement. 'In this study, we show that computer-designed proteins can help human immune cells spot the right targets and function more effectively.' The work could lead to significant advancements in precision immunotherapy, which delivers disease-fighting drugs that are crafted for individual patients. The key to this personalized approach lies in understanding how cells display their identity on their surfaces. The outside membrane of a cell is studded with molecules that include small proteins called peptides that reveal a cell's inner workings, including if it's cancerous or infected by a virus such as HIV. The scientists used RFdiffusion and ProteinMPNN — AI-tools built by the Institute for Protein Design — to efficiently and cheaply engineer proteins that recognize the unique peptides. University of Washington biochemist and Nobel Prize laureate David Baker at his office in Seattle. (GeekWire Photo / Lisa Stiffler) The custom-made proteins can then be integrated into chimeric antigen receptors (CARs), which are engineered molecules that attract and activate immune-system warriors called T cells to attack specific targets. In their study, the researchers designed proteins for 11 peptide targets and eight successfully triggered a T-cell response. Of those eight, two produced such a strong immune response that the T cells killed the targeted cells. The peptide targets included HIV fragments and tumor-related protein mutations. 'We've shown how advances in protein design could make personalized cancer therapy possible, and we intend to start a company to turn these results into real therapies that benefit patients,' said Bingxu Liu, co-lead author of the study and postdoctoral scholar in the Baker Lab. Since 2014, the Institute for Protein Design has spun off 10 startups, and Baker has co-founded 21 tech companies. When Baker won the Nobel Prize in October, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences noted that 'his research group has produced one imaginative protein creation after another, including proteins that can be used as pharmaceuticals, vaccines, nanomaterials and tiny sensors.' The researchers involved in the latest study explained that the strategy can be easily adapted to new scenarios. Within days, the team was able to take one of its successful proteins and use AI to modify it to target new cancer and virus-associated peptides. The process could make it much cheaper to create personalized treatments. 'I'm hopeful that this will lead to new therapies that are more accessible to patients around the world who do not benefit from current state-of-the-art cancer treatments,' said Julia Bonzanini, a co-lead author and Baker Lab graduate student. Researchers worldwide can access online the open-source software used in the research. Other authors of the Science paper, titled 'Design of high-specificity binders for peptide–MHC-I complexes,' are Nathan Greenwood, Amir Motmaen, Jeremy Meyerberg, Tao Dao, Xinyu Xiang, Russell Ault, Jazmin Sharp, Chunyu Wang, Gian Marco Visani, Dionne Vafeados, Nicole Roullier, Armita Nourmohammad, David Scheinberg and Christopher Garcia. RELATED:
Forbes
15 hours ago
- Forbes
Yes, You Should Brush Your Teeth For 2 Minutes, Twice A Day. Here's Why.
Maintaining good oral hygiene practices is key to keeping your teeth and gums healthy—and spending two minutes brushing twice a day is a crucial part of any routine. This may seem like a simple mandate, but there are several factors to keep in mind when you're brushing for optimal results: Technique, toothpaste, pacing and more will make a difference. The ultimate goal of brushing your teeth is to remove bacteria, which can otherwise build up to cause decay and disease. '[For] oral disease, whether that's cavities or whether that's gum disease, reducing the amount of bacterial load in the mouth is a critical piece of that prevention measure,' says Jennifer Cullen, clinical assistant professor at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry. We spoke to three dental experts to learn the best tips and tricks for keeping your teeth sparkling ... More clean. Illustration: Forbes / Photos: Retailers To help you make the most of your two-minute toothbrushing sessions—and learn why we should brush at this cadence in the first place—I spoke to three dental experts to get their advice: Mark S. Wolff, DDS, PhD, Morton Amsterdam dean and professor of the division of restorative dentistry at the University of Pennsylvania; Jennifer Cullen, clinical assistant professor at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry, and director of the division of dental hygiene; and Matthew Messina, DDS, associate professor, clinical and clinic director at the Ohio State University College of Dentistry, and ADA spokesperson. These experts shared their insights on how to brush most effectively, and why brushing teeth is important, to help you stay motivated. Here are the tips and techniques they recommend. Multiple clinical studies show that brushing for two minutes is key to removing plaque so you can keep your teeth and gums healthy. 'There's clinical studies that have shown two minutes of brushing to be highly effective in reducing [tooth] decay,' says Dr. Wolff. A key reason for the two-minute mandate is so you can actually reach the surface of every tooth in the mouth with your brush, and tackle all of the plaque on your teeth. Cullen explained that there are multiple layers of plaque on teeth, and that the longer you brush, the better you can get to the bottom-most, stickiest layers. The experts I spoke with maintained that thoroughly brushing the surface of every tooth takes time: You want to make sure you get the cheek and tongue surface and the back and front of each one. Wolff advises softly placing the bristles right at the gumline to start brushing. How can you ensure you're getting each tooth? 'Brush methodically, not randomly,' says Wolff. Approaching each quadrant of the mouth in 30-second intervals can help you hit all the areas of your mouth, too. Some of the best electric toothbrushes we've tested, like the Oral-B iO Deep Clean + Protect, our pick for the best smart electric toothbrush, and the Philips Sonicare 9900 Prestige, our pick for best splurge electric toothbrush, not only buzz at 30-second intervals to move you along but also have apps that track your brushing to show you any spots you're missing. Let Fluoride Do Its Job The other crucial reason to brush for two minutes twice a day is to let the fluoride in toothpaste take effect to help prevent tooth decay. Cullen notes that hygienists and dentists recommend that people use some sort of fluoridated toothpaste, and that 'there is evidence for the benefits of that increased duration with respect to fluoride delivery.' The experts I spoke to said that fluoride is key to protecting tooth enamel, and that longer exposure to fluoride makes it harder for bacteria to build back up on the tooth. 'It's actually making the enamel less soluble to acids,' says Wolff. Many of the best electric toothbrushes have timers to track your brushing. Some, like the Oral-B iO Deep Clean + Protect, display time clearly on the brush's LED interface and offer cartoon faces (ranging from a frown to starry-eyed smile) to indicate where you stand with your time goal. This brush also works with an app to help you track time, and uses a buzzer in 30-second increments to cue you to move around your mouth. Other brushes use an automatic shutoff feature, or similar buzzing notifications, to let you know when you've reached your full two minutes. Timers And Apps There are multiple ways to time your brushing. Cullen suggests a sand timer for kids or patients with special needs. Dr. Messina recommends using a timer on your phone. He also notes there are apps that are especially helpful for kids to guide them to brush around their mouth over the course of two minutes. Break It Up By Quadrant To break up the two minutes, you can also count for 30 seconds while brushing each quadrant of your mouth, if you don't have an electric toothbrush that does this automatically. This can help keep track of time while making sure you're getting to every tooth. Sing A Song Both Cullen and Messina suggest one way to track your time is to either sing or play a favorite song that lasts around two minutes. This can help gamify your brushing—and make it more enjoyable, a technique that can be especially helpful for kids. Be Gentle Though it's important to be thorough while brushing, experts advise against brushing too hard. 'You don't want to wear the teeth away by scrubbing like this is a floor,' says Wolff. Brushing too hard can actually damage your teeth and gums. To avoid that, opt for a brush with soft bristles. Many electric toothbrushes also have pressure sensors to indicate if you're brushing too aggressively, or if you're hitting the sweet spot. In our electric toothbrush tests, we preferred the easy-to-see sensor on the Oral-B iO Deep Clean + Protect, which uses a light around the neck of the toothbrush to flash green, white or red to indicate pressure. Other brushes can have pressure sensors that will buzz or light up to tell you to ease up. Don't Forget To Floss Brushing is just one key component of a great oral hygiene routine; it can't act alone. Flossing is crucial to reach every surface of the tooth to remove food and debris. 'Brushing itself only reaches 60% of your tooth surfaces,' says Cullen. 'Everywhere a tooth touches another tooth, that toothbrush can't get to.' She recommends floss or an adaptive aid to help get into those hard-to-reach spaces. We've also tested the best water flossers at Forbes Vetted, and these devices can help reach in between teeth to clear debris. The Waterpik Aquarius Water Flosser won as best water flosser overall in our tests. Water flossers may be especially useful for people with orthodontia or those who have difficulty using traditional dental floss. Consider The Swish, And The Social Brush All the experts I spoke to recommended brushing at least twice a day—but what if you want, or need, to brush more frequently? In general, that's fine, and some people may need to brush more frequently due to medical conditions or orthodontia. Wolff advises being mindful of not brushing too hard, however. 'There's nothing wrong with too much or too frequent brushing, as long as you do it gently and you don't wear away the gums [or] damage the tooth with a hard toothbrush,' he says. He also warned of compensating with frequency versus technique. 'Doing it three times a day badly does not make you less likely to get cavities or less likely to have gum disease,' he says. If you don't have access to a sink or brush after every meal, there are still easy things you can do to help keep your mouth cleaner. Cullen and Messina both advise swishing your mouth with water after eating to neutralize the pH of the mouth (when the environment of the mouth is more acidic, it becomes more hospitable to cavity-causing bacteria). Messina also recommends what he calls a 'social brush,' or a quicker brush to clear the mouth of food—for example, after eating a pungent meal like a hamburger with onions— that's less thorough than your twice-daily toothbrushing geared toward deeper cleaning and hitting every surface of the tooth. Remember That Every Patient Has Different Needs Though brushing your teeth for two minutes twice a day is the standard, every patient has different needs; some people may need to brush more frequently or require assistance with brushing. Cullen spoke to how a 10-year-old who isn't snacking frequently or drinking sweet drinks could brush just twice a day, while someone with Parkinson's disease may need to brush more frequently and with assistance. Sometimes electric toothbrushes can help people brush more effectively, but other assistive devices, like a universal cuff, can also help with holding a toothbrush independently. Cullen also said that caregivers may need to give patients breaks or adjust the location for brushing. 'If you're a caregiver, maybe you're doing it at the kitchen table,' she says. 'Maybe you're able to brush for 60 seconds and that person needs a break.' Check in with your hygienist, dentist and care team for the most relevant advice for your needs. Some Brushing Is Better Than None Building new habits like brushing your teeth for two minutes twice a day takes time, and starting a new routine can be intimidating. Messina notes that some patients can feel overwhelmed by the guilt of not brushing enough, and encourages people to do the best they can. Brushing isn't all or nothing; even if you can't reach the full two minutes, Messina says it's still helpful to brush in the first place, no matter how long the duration. 'I know if you start small, that you'll realize how much better it feels and then you'll do more and more,' he says. And remember, brushing is key to overall health. 'It seems like such a small thing to brush your teeth twice a day, but I think people should be encouraged that they're really making a big impact on their overall health when they do that small thing,' says Cullen.
