Legislature(2007 - 2008)BELTZ 211
04/26/2007 01:30 PM Senate LABOR & COMMERCE
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| SB140 | |
| SB102 | |
| SB28 | |
| SB118 | |
| HB121 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| *+ | SB 118 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | HB 121 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
| += | SB 140 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| += | SB 102 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| += | SB 28 | TELECONFERENCED | |
SB 118-PLASTIC BAG FEE; ESTABLISH LITTER FUND
2:43:24 PM
CHAIR ELLIS announced SB 118 to be up for consideration.
SENATOR ELTON, sponsor of SB 118, said the issue in this bill is
plastic pollution. He offered to share a compelling nine-minute
video with anyone on the committee about it. He stated that this
bill imposes a tax to change consumers' behavior. There are two
ways of dealing with plastic bag pollution and this tax is one.
The other choice is just banning their use. Bans are not
unusual; about 30 Alaskan communities have banned them.
2:44:53 PM
SENATOR ELTON called his approach the "Ireland approach" and
explained they imposed a tax of 20 cents per plastic bag and
this reduced their use by 90 percent - a significant
diminishment of harm to the land and water in and around
Ireland. He said that plastic bags never go away; they break up
into tiny pieces.
2:45:33 PM
He said there are fiscal notes attached to this bill and said
while it is easy to predict the cost of the program, it's hard
to predict what revenues will be collected through the tax. Both
he and Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) are semi-
comfortable with the notion this tax will generate at least $1.8
million and probably more according to the Department of Revenue
(DOR).
SENATOR ELTON emphasized that his goal was not to raise
revenues; it is rather to raise no revenues at all because that
means no plastic bags are being used.
2:47:49 PM
KRISTEN RYAN, Director, Division of Environmental Health,
Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), said she would
be available for questions.
2:48:31 PM
DIXIE BELCHER, Turning the Tides, said this organization is
devoted to raising awareness about the deteriorating health of
the Pacific Ocean. She said the following are facts from the
Algalita Marine Research Foundation (AMRF) and other scientific
organizations that study the effects of plastics and plastic
bags on the marine environment. They found that plastic bags do
not biodegrade, they photo-degrade. This means they are broken
down into smaller and smaller toxic bits less than the diameter
of a human hair.
They contaminate ocean, air, soil and food. They
contain PCBs and other toxic man-made chemicals now
found throughout the food chain and shellfish to
humans. These toxins are now in human breast milk and
children and adults around the world. It is one reason
cancer rates have arisen from 1 in 10 in 1975 to 1 in
2 today. Many marine animals contain so many of these
toxins they can legally be classified as toxic dumps.
There are 6 times more plankton-sized plastics than
plankton in huge areas of the ocean. Birds, fish and
marine animals ingest these thinking they are food and
millions are dying. Their bodies biodegrade, but the
plastic remains to be eaten by other birds and
animals.
Plastic bags cover miles and miles of ocean floor. No
one knows the extent. In some areas of the deep ocean,
scientists have been unable to find the floor because
it is so heavily layered with plastic bags. Half of
all plastic in ocean sinks and under these bags the
shellfish, worms and other tiny animals that help make
up the bottom of the food chain are dead. Each year
the United States consumes 100 billion plastic
shopping bags and throws away an estimated 8 billion
pounds of these bags. The world uses 1 million plastic
bags per minute. It is estimate to take up to 1,000
years for plastic bags to degrade in a warm landfill,
longer in a cold ocean environment.
We don't need plastic bags. We are killing the oceans,
ourselves and our descendents for short-term
convenience. The ocean is 71 percent of the earth's
surface and supplies up to 85 percent of the world's
oxygen and nitrogen. No human, animal or plant can
live without the ocean. Its health is rapidly
deteriorating and we must find a way to reverse this
trend. Stopping the use of plastic bags is something
everybody can do.
2:50:59 PM
CACHE GARRET, representing humans, said she is a senior at UAS,
and that she believes human life is in great danger due to the
use of plastics bags. They are accumulating in landfills, which
is a problem for Juneau with its "garbage mountain" and it's a
growing problem because we have gotten rid of our incinerator.
Plastic bags going into the landfill are suffocating it and not
allowing for natural biodegradation. She said all plastics break
apart; they don't biodegrade. Once plastics are created they are
on earth forever.
MS. GARRET said she could support the use of the plastics for
medical reasons, but not for plastic bags for convenience. She
implored them "to get rid of them in Alaska and be a leader in
the nation for sustainability."
2:53:20 PM
DR. MARCUS ERICKSON, Director of Education and Research,
Algalita Marine Research Foundation, said the foundation
basically studies plastic degrading in the marine environment.
He said the largest landfill in the United States is about 1,200
miles southwest of Juneau, Alaska, in what they call the eastern
garbage patch of the North Pacific Ocean. His foundation has
traveled out there five years in a row and has found the mass of
plastic floating in the ocean is roughly six times greater than
the mass of all marine life on the ocean's surface. The combined
weight of all that plastic comes to about 3.5 million tons.
DR. ERICKSON said this problem did not exist 50 years ago. "So
in half a century, we've turned our coast into America's largest
landfill." He said the small pieces of plastic act like sponges
for many kinds of organic pollutants like PCBs and DDTs from the
incomplete burning of fossil fuels from combustion engines.
These pollutants stick to plastics. For example one small piece
of light plastic will turn a dingy orange brown over a couple of
years and can have up to a million times higher concentration of
pollution than an equal volume of a drop of seawater.
He said these pieces are being ingested by marine organisms -
filter feeders and even baleen whales. If fact, nearly half of
all seabirds are found with plastics in their stomachs. Over 26
cetacean species have plastics in their bodies and all marine
turtles. It is a global problem. PCBs are found in animal and
marine mammal tissues, which many people consume causing these
toxins to migrate into human bodies.
2:56:04 PM
DR. ERICKSON said there is an urgent need to change and reduce
our culture's use of all these plastics, especially plastic
bags. He described the "Low Dose Effect" which is from the
chemicals in plastics - these things in studies of mice and rats
have been shown to cause tumors in mammary glands, prostate
cancer and insulin inhibitors resulting in diabetes - effects
that are happening in human populations now.
CHAIR ELLIS thanked everyone for testifying on SB 118 and that
it would be heard another time.
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