Plastic bags praised in state text
Officials note many groups had input on environmental text
Answer key for teacher's manual suggests how students might describe the benefits of plastic bags
Advantages of plastic bags
• Plastic bags require 70% less energy to make than paper bags, take less energy to recycle, and take up less space in landfills than paper bags.
• Lightweight plastic bags cost less to transport. Seven trucks are needed to deliver the same number of paper bags as the number of plastic bags that one truck can deliver.
• Plastic bags can be reused, for example, to line household wastebaskets, and can be made into a variety of second generation products, such as new bags and plastic lumber for decking.
Disadvantages of plastic bags
• Although polyethylene can be recycled, most plastic bags end up as urban blight or in landfills, waterways, and in the ocean. Plastic is especially harmful to marine life.
• The polymer pieces in plastic bags are not biodegradable. The bag may break into pieces, but the pieces still exist as plastic.
• Nonrenewable natural resources—oil and natural gas—are used to manufacture these bags, and these resources are in short supply.
Source: Education and the Environment Initiative Curriculum
California Watch
The San Diego County Office of Education is standing by an environmental curriculum developed with positive messages about plastic bags, inserted by the plastics industry.
The 85-unit Education and the Environment Initiative Curriculum was created by the California Environmental Protection Agency and unanimously approved by the State Board of Education in 2010.
The text was put together by consultant Gerald Lieberman, director of the nonprofit State Education and Environmental Roundtable, who was paid $2.4