{"id":8459,"date":"2024-12-11T17:39:54","date_gmt":"2024-12-11T17:39:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/projectgreenlancaster.millersville.edu\/?p=8459"},"modified":"2024-12-17T21:42:35","modified_gmt":"2024-12-17T21:42:35","slug":"plastic-bag-ban-instituted-in-lancaster-township","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/projectgreenlancaster.millersville.edu\/index.php\/2024\/12\/11\/plastic-bag-ban-instituted-in-lancaster-township\/","title":{"rendered":"Plastic bag ban instituted in Lancaster township"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lancaster Township has Banned Plastic Bags.<\/strong>
\nLancaster Township has instituted a ban on single use plastic bags that went into effect on Jan 1st, 2024.<\/em>
\nby Dominic Florio<\/p>\n

\tLancaster Township has become the first township in Lancaster County Pennsylvania to ban single use plastic bags in stores. The ban started going into effect on January 1st, 2024, when the Lancaster Township Board of Supervisors passed legislation back in August of 2023 that would limit the distribution of these bags to help cut down on pollution. A major reason why the ban went into effect is because authorities have been reporting problems with plastic bags clogging up stormwater drains and natural creeks. <\/p>\n

\tThe two major retailers affected by this new legislation are the Manor Shopping Center Weis, and the Stone Mill Plaza Giant. They have had a seamless transition and are now offering customers the option to spend 10 cents for a paper bag or buy a slightly more expensive reusable bag. Alternatively, customers may also choose to bring their own bag from home which has no cost at the store itself. <\/p>\n

\tOne issue raised about the bag ban is now shoppers who do not have reusable bags now have to pay the fee to get a paper bag when there was no fee before, even if it is only 10 cents per bag those bags can add up over the weeks of getting groceries especially in the kind of economy we are facing today.<\/p>\n

\tOne big thing with this story that may confuse many is where the plastic bags are being banned in, as stated before it is Lancaster township where this ban goes into effect, not Lancaster city the difference between the two of them can be shown here on this map below. Lancaster Township has a population of about 18,000, while Lancaster city has a population of 57,000, and just for reference Lancaster County has a population of 558,000. The low number of people this affects raises the question by some experts on how effective the ban is. While the ban covers the Manor shopping center it leaves out other major shopping centers in the area such as the Park City Mall, the Overlook Town Center, the Hawthorne Centre shopping centers, and the Millersville Commons strip mall that lays just over 200 feet from the townships boarder.<\/p>\n

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\nMillersville Commons strip mall only 200 feet from being in Lancaster township. Photo by: Dominic Florio<\/p>\n

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\nMap Comparing the size and population of Lancaster Township and Lancaster city. By: Dominic Florio<\/p>\n

\tWhile a statewide ban of plastic bags may not yet be ready for Pennsylvania, nine other states in the union have already taken the steps to ban all plastic bags from their state. Listed amongst these states are Pennsylvania\u2019s neighbors New York, New Jersey, and Delaware. In addition to statewide bans there are many other local plastic bag bans within the state as well however none of PA’s 67 counties have such a ban, however there are over thirty cities, townships, and burrows from across the state that have banned plastic bags, including of course Lancaster township. Most of these bans are concentrated in the south east of the state in places like Delaware counties media and Montgomery township in Montgomery county. However it should be noted that the city of Pittsburg also has a plastic bag ban as well. On top of this some counties also limit plastic straws to request only. The biggest ban in Pennsylvania is in Philadelphia city, with all these places added up about 2.5 Million Pennsylvania residence live under a plastic bag ban.<\/p>\n

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\nMap of status of bag ban of states surrounding PA. By: Dominic Florio<\/p>\n

\tWhile hypothesis can be discussed all day an important thing to figure out would be how this ban affects the stores themselves because of these I have included a few interviews from a store that follows the ban and a store that doesn\u2019t, it will be interesting to see if there are any differences between their thoughts. <\/p>\n

Manager Sean<\/strong>
\n\tSean is a store manager at the Weis located at 1204 Millersville Pike in the Manor shopping center which is located inside of Lancaster Township and thus part of the bag ban. When asked how his store was doing with the bag ban he said that their store was able to handle it pretty well, he got almost no comments from his staff. The customers also seem to be mostly on board with the policy, but he mentioned that the customers who disliked the new paper bags really disliked them and made sure to let him and the staff know.<\/p>\n

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\nWeis that Sean works at. Photo by: Dominic Florio<\/p>\n

Manager Dan<\/strong>
\n\tDan is an assistant manager of the Weis located at 1700 Fruitville Pike in the Red Rose Commons a part of Lancaster city that doesn\u2019t follow the plastic bag ban. I asked him how he felt the store would react to a plastic bag ban if it came to them in the future. He said that the store would be fine if they had to switch to paper bags, he also said that he does understand why some people would be apprehensive about the paper bags due to them ripping much easier than plastic.<\/p>\n

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\nWeis store that Dan works at. Photo by: Dominic Florio <\/p>\n

\tAlthough some of these numbers may look a bleak it is important to remember that every little bit helps in order to cut down on the amount of plastic bags we use, as humans use over 5 trillion plastic bags per year and each of these bags will take up to 1,000 years to decompose in a landfill so every little bit helps to reduce our numbers down as much as we can no matter how small of a difference it makes.<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania Neighbors & bag bans<\/strong>
\n\tDelaware is the first state of the ones next to Pennsylvania to ban the use of plastic bags. They banned all uses of plastic bags except for specific uses in 2019, on top of this they had legislation from all the way back in 2009 that requires stores to have places where you can recycle your one-time plastic bags, like turning them into benches. Following this New York followed in Delawares footsteps in 2020 to ban single use bags in their state followed by New Jersey in 2022. Meanwhile a state like Ohio doesn\u2019t have the bags banned statewide but rather in some counties such as Cuyahoga County. Pennsylvania at this time does not have any county wide bans.<\/p>\n

What’s the difference between different types of bags<\/strong>
\n Some people might look at a plastic bag and a paper bag from the store and wonder what the difference is between the two if they both end up getting thrown out either way. If you look at how each bag is made before it gets to the store it looks like plastic bags might be better for the environment as they can be produced with much less energy than it takes to produce a paper bag, on top of this for America currently we cut down 14 million trees in order to make paper bags. However once we leave the store is when the problems with plastic bags start to show themselves as they contain chemicals like Sulfur Dioxide. Reusable bags however are better for the environment as they are able to be used multiple times before going to waste.<\/p>\n

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\nTimeline of bag bans in Pennsylvania and surrounding states. By: Dominic Florio<\/p>\n