Aaron Waters MSEM ’15 was hired by the City of Austin to conduct a report on the nationally-famous Austin plastic bag ban to measure its effectiveness since being launched in March 2013. Aaron presented the report to the City of Austin’s Zero Waste Advisory Commission on the evening of June 10, 2015 in the council chambers of downtown City Hall.
Aaron’s report finds that Austinites use 75% -almost 200 million fewer- plastic bags annually than before the ban two years ago. This is exciting and encouraging news for proponents of the ban. “This is something we should proud of and other cities should emulate,” says Andrew Dobbs with Texas Campaign for the Environment to KUT News.
The report also found that thicker reusable plastic bags such as the red and white ones sold by HEB grocery stores have replaced single-use plastic bags in local recycling streams. Aaron is quoted by KUT as saying that those reusable plastic bags leave a larger carbon footprint than their single-use counterparts and can actually be harder to recycle. They’re intended to be used more than 100 times, but many people seem to be treating them like single-use bags and are throwing them away after only a couple of times.
“While most citizens find the bag ordinance to be beneficial to the environment, at least in terms of the reduction of litter, the results do not indicate a clear success,” says Aaron in the report.
You can read the full report here. The KUT article features a summary of Aaron’s report. We are proud of Aaron’s hard work on this important project!