Two Wisconsin legislators introduced a bill Wednesday that would ban retail stores from using non-biodegradable plastic bags, furthering efforts in the state to go green.""
Following recent trends in other eco-friendly states, state Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, and state Sen. Bob Jauch, D-Poplar, introduced the bill that would prohibit all retail stores from providing plastic bags to consumers that are not biodegradable.
""We did a little research and this is exactly what they passed in San Francisco and are proposing in New York City '¦ other states are looking at this as well,"" Pocan said, adding his constituents in Madison expressed an interest in alternatives to plastic bags.
Pocan said plastic bags are produced with petroleum so as the price of oil rises, so will the cost of plastic bags. ""Switching to biodegradable plastic bags essentially costs the same as a paper bag, which is a couple pennies more than a plastic bag.""
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, in one year as many as one trillion plastic bags are used worldwide - 95 percent of which are not recycled. Non-biodegradable bags take 1,000 years to decompose in landfills, according to the EPA.
Biodegradable bags are made from starch polymers, found in agricultural products like corn and eggs, and can decompose in as little as 10 to 45 days. The bags can also decompose in water and leave behind no harmful residue in the environment, according to BioBag, a leading manufacturer of the eco-friendly bags.
Pocan also said the bill received bipartisan support but was opposed by the Wisconsin Grocer's Association and their lobbyist group the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce.
