Costs Associated With Paper and Plastic Bags ROBERT HALEY Department of the Environment

Costs Associated With Paper and Plastic Bags

ROBERT HALEY Department of the Environment - CCSF 17nov04

SF Environment
415-355-3700
environment@sfgov.org
11 Grove Street
San Francisco CA 94102

Background: Our calculations, based on a database of supermarkets in San Francisco, and discussions with Safeway, are that 50,000,000 bags are distributed annually through outlets defined as supermarkets in San Francisco, and that 90% are plastic bags, and 10% are paper bags.

Norcal Recycling Contamination Costs: Bag contamination of the recycling stream creates two problems at Norcal’s processing facilities. The first is the cost of removing bag contamination from recycling equipment and machinery. Norcal costs for bag contamination includes the cost of 12 classifiers to remove bags from the recycling stream, which amounts to $494,000 a year; $100,000 annually to clear machinery jams caused by bags, and $100,000 annually in reduced revenue on the sale of recyclable materials due to bag contamination. Total annual cost $ 694,000. This does not include the costs incurred by other recyclers.
This is 1.4 cents a bag.

Norcal Composting Contamination Costs: Removing plastic, picking up litter and reduced revenue of the sale of compostable materials due to bag contamination totals $400,000 annually.
This is .8 cents a bag.

Collection and Disposal Costs: Based on the 2% of the waste stream that is paper and plastic bags, the annual cost of collection and disposal for bags alone is $3,600,000.
This is 7.2 cents a bag.

City Street Cleaning Costs: The annual costs for street cleaning is $26,000,000, which includes both mechanical and manual collection of litter from San Francisco’s streets. 10% of the amount spent on litter collection is spent on bag collection and transportation. This amounts to $2,600,000 annually.
This is 5.2 cents a bag.

City Future Landfill Liability Costs, Including Post-Closure: With bags making up 2% of the waste stream, the annual cost for future liability costs totals $1,200,000 annually based on an analysis of potential remediation and processing of $85.50 a ton.
This is 2.4 cents a bag.

Total 17.0 cents per bag.

mindfully.org note:
The cost to the City of San Francisco per bag is 17¢. This includes only items billed directly to the city and not other externalized costs.

There is 6 times more plastic than plankton floating around in the middle of the Pacific.

Trashed: Across the Pacific Ocean, Plastics, Plastics, Everywhere - Natural History v.112, n.9, Nov03

The photo below is of the decomposed carcass of this Laysan albatross on Kure Atoll, which lies in a remote and virtually uninhabited region of the North Pacific. The bird probably mistook the plastics for food and ingested them while foraging for prey. (Natural History)

If the Plastic Bags Delivered with the San Francisco Chronicle in 1 Week Were Piled onto a Football Field, How High Would that Pile Be? And How Much Would They Weigh?

The above costs do not include the following:

The decomposed carcass of this Laysan albatross on Kure Atoll, which lies in a remote and virtually uninhabited region of the North Pacific. The bird probably mistook the plastics for food and ingested them while foraging for prey.

Mindfully.org note:
While this particular albatross was killed by mostly plastic bottle caps, there are hundreds of recorded incidents of other sea animals strangling on plastic bags. They get stuck in the animals' throats, thus blocking food from entering the stomach. The animals also get entangled in the bags, which can act as a parachute in the water, thus preventing them from escaping prey.

More on Plastics in the Sea and Lakes

Litter abatement efforts by the Housing Authority, Public Utilities Commission, MUNI, Port, Real Estate, Recreation and Park Department, and other San Francisco City and County agencies.

Litter that the City cannot currently afford to clean up (e.g., bags in trees, on overhead wires and in the Bay).

Litter abatement efforts by the Presidio Trust, Park Service, Coastal Commission, other agencies, private and non-profit organizations, and citizens and volunteers along San Francisco’s coastline and within its city limits.

Litter escaping from San Francisco’s boundaries into other jurisdictions and commons such as the Bay and Pacific Gyre.

Flood control and damage, and sewer system maintenance and cleaning performed by Public Works and the Public Utilities Commission.

Establishing and operating programs to collect, process and market for recycling the plastic and paper bags currently being landfilled, including those collected as litter.

Contribution toward exhausting our current landfill agreement and requiring the City to enter into a new agreement sooner and at a higher cost.

Litter containment efforts at landfills receiving San Francisco materials.

Externalities such as pollution, climate change, biodiversity decline, human health impacts, aesthetics, and other nuisances caused by the production, distribution and disposal of bags.

Accelerated depletion of petroleum and other resources making them unavailable or more expensive for current and future generations.

Death of marine animals, even leading to extinction for some species, from bag suffocation or ingestion.

Loss of fishing productivity.

Suffocation of human infants (plastic bags are the second-leading cause of suffocation among babies).

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