Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
•Inspiteofrecyclingcampaigns
approximately 190,000 tonnes
of plastic waste is disposed of
into New Zealand's landills
each year
Rhode Island, USA
•InRhodeIsland,
nearly 192 million
plastic bags were
consumed annually.
Rhode Island, in
particular, has had
problems disposing
of and properly
containing litter at
the rapidly illing
central landill, causing
concern from the solid
waste management
sector [39]
•RhodeIslandlegislaturepassedChapter
23-18.11 'Promotion of Paper Bag
Usage' of the Rhode Island Health and
Safety Act which sought to decrease
plastic bag waste and litter in the
state. This act utilised two methods for
prompting this change. First, the bill
stipulates that retailers must provide
paper bags at equal cost to plastic bags
despite the higher cost of paper bags
(3 ¢/bag for paper as opposed to 1 ¢/
bag for plastic). It also requires plastic
bag recycling at retail stores selling
more than $8 million dollars of goods
per year
•Theprimaryobjectiveoftheproposed
amendment is to control litter from
retail bags by encouraging the use of
reusable bags as opposed to paper
or
plastic bags. The amendment seeks
to reduce retail packaging by offering
economic incentives
•Consumersareencouragedtobring
their own bags to stores (rather than
relying on the retailer to provide either
paper or plastic bags). The amendment
obliges retailers to provide a 0.03¢
credit rebate to consumers for each
bag they bring to a retail establishment
for reuse in the packaging of their
purchased goods
•Theamendmentseekstoprovidea
reward incentive for consumers to
provide their own bags. This promotes
consumers to recycle by creating an
indirect economic incentive
•Disincentiveforthecontinueduseof
wasteful single use packaging
•AnamendmenttotheLitterActwas
introduced to the House (House Bill
7001) on 31
st
January 2006
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