Legislature(2007 - 2008)BELTZ 211
04/26/2007 01:30 PM Senate LABOR & COMMERCE
Audio | Topic |
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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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