Plastics are in our everyday lives. The pens we write with, plastic water bottles (not even just the single use one's) our phones, what holds our food. It is an escapable product in many, if not all of our lives. Now, there is no denying that plastics make our live easier. We can use a plastic plate and then throw it away after one use and not have to worry about cleaning dishes. What worries myself and many others is the extent to which we use plastics. Like I said, they are everywhere. You can not live a plastic free life. Think about when you buy a bottle of shampoo that is in a plastic container. It's not like there is another plastic free option for buying shampoo. This is a major reason to why we have so much plastic pollution is simply because we just use it so much without even thinking about it. This is why people, such as myself and my classmates are taking action to limit the negative effects of this extreme plastic pollution that we are facing. As part of the environmental fellows program here at Depauw we are currently in the process of supporting a precious plastics site on campus. I am working on the policy portion of plastics. My group member, Erika Merchant and I are focusing on plastic bags. This is because from doing research we found that there is little to no policies made in regards to plastic recycling in Indiana and if there was any it was very hard to find. Hence we decided to focus more on plastic bags, specifically plastic bag bans. This is in part due to the fact that Indiana is a republican state and typically environmental conservation is not one of the top priorities. “Republicans are against the EPA’s revoking of current permits, and wish to see new greenhouse gas regulations by the EPA stopped by congress, because they would only harm the economy and threaten jobs..” From this it is clear that the planet is not something that is valued by the republican party because what they want is to promote jobs and help the economy, and are not as concerned as to what is going to happen to our planet that we all live on. A perfect example of this goes along with my project on the plastic bags ban. Mike Pence current vice president of the United States while he was the governor for Indiana decided to make a ban on plastic bag bans. This was a majority republican vote which prevents city and council officials in Indiana to either tax or ban single use bags. Bans on plastic bags, if done correctly, will reduce the amount of plastic waste. In places where they are implemented have significantly less amounts of plastic pollution. For example in Ireland a plastic bag tax was set in place in 2002 which reduced the litter by 95%. The main concern that republicans, like Pence have is how it will effects jobs. I understand that maintaining peoples jobs is important, people need some sort of income to survive but at what cost. There is this constant pushback on environmental policies such as plastic bag bans because of the possible effects to the economy.
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