this was certainly an unusual wake up call, but i also found myself in an unusual place, sailing through the heart of southeast alaska with lindblad expeditions. sleep would have to wait — i was here for adventure after all and whale sightings are a once-in-a-lifetime experience. furiously matting my bedhead, i donned a rain jacket and hurried up to the deck. 

i was struck by a sharp wind and a spray of mist as i opened the door to the outside world. i eagerly scanned the horizon and, after a brief moment, was greeted by half a dozen whale tails, seemingly waving at me as they dove back beneath the water’s surface. they didn’t stay under for long, however. it was feeding time and the whales were evidently hungry. 

up and down they went, smooth arched backs diving beneath the surface, each flourishing tail a sight to behold. shiny black blubber, flowing like a heart shaped fan, glistened in the morning light and sent droplets of water rippling through the air. 

i grabbed my camera, hoping to catch a whale fully breaching, but it was those tails that kept appearing in my viewfinder. at first, i found myself frustrated at my inability to photograph anything more than that last bit of whale disappearing into the water. but i soon learned that there was more to these tails (and thus this tale) than it seemed.

more than a fluke

on the deck, shannon malone, the ship’s naturalist and undersea specialist explained that photographing these whales, specifically their tails, could actually be a huge benefit to science. it turns out researchers and scientists can learn a lot just by looking at this small section of the animal. 

“what we’re trying to do is learn about the whales as much as we can without altering their behavior,” malone said. the fluke [the two lobes of a whale’s tail] is really like seeing their face. so you see the same individuals, then you start to know other parts of them.”

yes, believe it or not, a whale’s tail is like a fingerprint, each wholly unique to the individual. the shapes of tails vary widely among species and scarring from broken off barnacles and/or predation further distinguishes one whale from the next. by identifying specific whales, scientists can then track them and study migration and behavioral patterns as well as their life histories.

“the way that they [scientists] figured out that those markings mattered, was actually just random happenstance,” malone said. she explained that in the 1960’s researchers from hawaii met with a high school science teacher from juneau and compared whale photos. previously, the researchers in hawaii were unsure of where the humpbacks were going to migrate and thought this might be the missing link. “they sat down and just started playing the game of like, mix and match with their pictures and realized ‘wow, these are the same.’ that’s how it all began,” malone said.

from tails to happywhale

these days it’s no longer necessary to identify whales by hand. back in 2015, ted cheeseman, a conservation biologist, founded happywhale, a website that utilizes a custom-made algorithm to analyze and identify humpback whales through photo comparisons.

just as detectives find fingerprint matches by analyzing ridges of a finger pad and comparing them to an existing database, happywhale’s algorithm matches newly uploaded fluke photos with previously uploaded photos to find matches. from there, scientists, researchers, and the public can find information on the whales they have identified, such as their gender and where they previously have been spotted. 

“the importance of it is only as important as it is to understand the fate of our oceans, which as we are seeing today, the health of human societies is quite dependent upon,” cheeseman said. “this is basically another lens we have … that has provided effectively a tool to be able to see in near real time how marine conditions are faring.”

a unique aspect of happywhale is that anyone can upload photos and anyone can access the information on these whales found on the site. the result is a diverse community of citizen scientists, researchers, and environmentalists working in tandem to achieve a variety of goals.

for the casual uploader, happywhale provides the opportunity to track “your” whale and even name it, if you are the first to discover it. for the researchers, it provides unprecedented access to a vast trove of information on a specific species. with an ever-growing database of more than 500,000 submitted photos and 200,000-plus identified encounters, the knowledge of these majestic creatures will continue to expand as well. 

“i see the whole thing as being kind of equal parts a research tool, a public education tool, and a public experience,” cheeseman said. 

a large portion of uploads actually come from tourism. i witnessed this first-hand as some of the naturalists aboard the ship spent hours logging dozens of fluke photos they had taken in the morning. 

when i later sat down with malone she explained that having naturalists like herself, as well as tourists, contribute to happywhale’s database saves research groups a lot of time, effort, and money. in addition to whale identification, the website also offers similar algorithms to analyze and track everything from penguins to sea otters.

“if we just relied on the researchers to gather the information about whales, we would have maybe a handful of people working. but with citizen science, you’re now getting to use the resources of thousands of people,” malone said. “like with any science, the more data points we have, the more accurately we can speak about the population as a whole. it’s not only adding to the science, but it’s adding to the group of stewards for the environment by informing people about this.”

cheeseman agreed, emphasizing how happywhale can serve as a tool for people from all walks of life.

“what’s most powerful is this becomes a tool for the guides, folks like shannon, to have more resources so that they can do their job with science support,” he said. “at the end of the day, what this is trying to do is help people understand. my goal is not at all to get every one of those folks to submit, it’s really more to have a few people turn on and stay turned on.”

the ship sails on

by the end of the expedition, i was hooked by happywhale’s mission. scanning their website, it’s easy to see the appeal and how powerful a tool it can be. a quick search allowed me to find the whales the naturalist had identified on our expedition. i then clicked on another upload from alaska and found other humpback whales, decades old, spotted as far as hawaii. 

unfortunately, i never got any close-up shots on my expedition to submit to happywhale. still, the memory of my adventure lives on thanks to the uploads of so many others. even having now left alaska, i am confident this tale will continue.

––

editor’s note: lindblad expeditions, our planet forward storyfest competition partner, made this series possible by providing winners with an experiential learning opportunity aboard one of their ships. all editorial content is created independently. we thank lindblad expeditions for their continued support of our project. read all the stories from the expedition in our astonishing alaska series.

the similarities don’t end there either. both are being increasingly affected by climate change.

up in flames

in california, wildfires are one of the biggest problems plaguing sierra nevada. heat and dryness resulting from drought and increased temperatures have caused wildfires to increase in intensity, quantity and frequency. according to california’s department of forestry and fire protection (cal fire), nine out of ten of the state’s largest wildfires have occurred in the last decade. the trend is likely to continue, as one study suggests the number of fires could increase by about 20 percent or more by 2040.

jessica morse, deputy secretary for forest and wildland resilience within california’s natural resource agency and board member of sierra nevada conservancy, put it simply.

 “you’re seeing drought plus heat precipitate catastrophic fire,” she said. “you have like 200 days without rain and in some of these areas you’re getting no moisture and it’s causing the fire season to get longer and longer and longer to the point that now it’s basically become year round.”

wildfires actually play a crucial role in sierra nevada’s ecosystem and have done so naturally for centuries. fires can clear out dead organic material. allowing nutrients to return to the soil and new plants to grow. yet, more recent fires have gotten out of hand –– in large part due to human interference. 

there are a number of factors here, from the forced removal of indigenous people who practiced vital cultural burnings, to the clear-cutting during the gold-rush era that wiped out many fire-resilient trees. this was further compounded by a policy of fire suppression by the forest service for most of the 20th century. now, a strand of overly dense and weak trees that burn easily and fast is all that remains.

spain’s sierra nevada has a similar history of human interference, with mass deforestation resulting from factors such as mining activities and privatization of forest land, which was then converted to pastures or arable land once sold.

in the late 1930’s, a major reforestation plan was formulated during the final years of the spanish civil war. while it was recognized that forest regeneration was urgently needed, the plan also provided much needed jobs in a time where hunger and unemployment were rampant in the face of the dictatorial regime that emerged in the post-war era.

the program proved successful on a number of levels –– nearly 275,000 hectares were planted in the first decade of the program and in total 2.9 million hectares of trees were planted between 1940-1983. rainfall was higher than average during this time and the wide scale planting helped deal with ongoing issues of soil erosion. as intended, many jobs were created in the process, as the work did not require much specialization.

yet, there was a problem; nearly 85% of the trees planted were pine species. though not known at the time, the lack of diversity in plant life and thick density of the forests would make for increased risk of fire as the years progressed.  

as blanca ramos, member of sierra nevada’s global change observatory put it, “it is a totally homogenous territory with no diversity in terms of age or structure or species. these systems are extremely vulnerable, for instance to fire.”

this has proved overwhelmingly true. from 1961 to 2005, almost 2.75 million hectares were burned, which represents 93% of the area reforested between 1940 and 1983, meaning a majority of the work has been undone. 

it might seem obvious in hindsight that a lack of biodiversity could lead to issues down the road. yet, as jorge castro, a professor of ecology at the university of granada pointed out, these trees were planted far before science or forest studies found the flaws in planting a monoculture.

“these pines were selected according to the dramatic conditions that were prevalent 60 or 70 years ago and, at that moment nobody talked about climate change,” castro said. “these trees are adults now and they are very dense, so there are not enough resources for them. these plantations are debilitated; it is not a very healthy situation.  

spain’s wildfires occur on a much smaller scale than in the united states. for instance, spain’s biggest wildfire in 2021 scorched around 10,000 hectares of land while california’s 2021 dixie fire burned through over 350,000 hectares. 

as castro explained, the forests in spain are much smaller so there is less to burn –– but, on a relative scale, wildfires are still ravaging ecosystems.

“if you have 1 million kilometers of forest and half is burnt, you still lose half of the forest, so it’s a big issue.” he said.

in the face of increasing wildfires, both california and spain are now trying to reverse these effects. 

fighting fire with fire

in september 2021, california’s governor gavin newsom signed a $15 billion package to tackle the climate crisis, $1.5 billion dollars of which will go toward wildlife and forest resilience efforts. the effort marks the largest investment in the climate crisis in the state’s history. 

according to morse, the $1.5 billion investment package will largely be distributed to the california natural resources agency and will be spread across 21 different departments, including the california department of forestry and fire protection and the sierra nevada conservancy.

morse said the cnra plans to implement the funds on three fronts: putting in defensible space and home hardening so communities and their homes can potentially withstand fires; strategic fuel break around these communities so firefighters have a place to steer the fires away from homes; and finally working to return fire to it’s natural ecological role through forest restoration.

the last part is crucial and will be done through a process known as prescribed, or controlled, burning in which parts of a forest are intentionally burned in order to maintain forest health and protect against more extreme fires. 

as morse explained, controlled burning helps safely reduce excessive amounts of brush and trees, ensuring future fires will not spread as far out of control. she added these fires are planned well in advance and at times when weather conditions are such that the fire will not spread out of control. 

”when a fire does strike, it burns at a low intensity level and plays an ecological role germinating seeds, improving diversity,  and improving the watershed as opposed to the catastrophic role of wiping everything out,” morse said.

prescribed burning is becoming an increasingly popular solution around the country as a way to mitigate fires and it has proven effective in a number of wildfires. as one example, when the 2021 caldor fire ravaged parts of california, south lake tahoe managed to avoid much of the damage in part due to prior prescribed burning.

while more people are coming around to the idea, there is often pushback against the idea of controlled burns, especially among people who are new to the concept. as jamie ervin, a fire restoration advocate and former member of sierra forest legacy, a non-profit dedicated to the protection, restoration and management of sierra nevada, explained, it can be difficult for people to fathom how starting more fires could actually help prevent fires in the future.

“i think people get it to a large part, but, when it actually comes to lighting something near where people are, that can be challenging. you could run into a lot of resistance from folks, especially if it’s a private landowner doing burning instead of a federal agency or something like that,” he said.

cut for time

in spain, prescribed burning is barely considered an option due to negative public sentiment, according to castro.

“not in sierra nevada, not in spain, i will say not in the mediterranean basin … this is taboo,” he said. “it could be a good option to manage the environment but, there is such a concept of fires being something really bad, that society cannot accept that you burn the forest to control the future fires.

it’s not necessarily ignorance or a lack of education driving this sentiment. as castro explained, many people have spent all their lives hearing about or working firsthand on reforestation efforts. proposing to burn the very pine trees that were the long-time focus of the reforestation efforts can seem completely backwards.

“for decades people, the forest service, and the citizens, and the villages have been putting in huge effort to cultivate these trees to have a non-natural forest but a forest nonetheless,” he said. “imagine you’ve spent your life like that and your son has spent his life like that and now you go and say, ‘don’t worry guys, we are going to solve all the problems here. we are going to burn the forest.’ they cannot understand that.”

castro said instead much focus is put into thinning the forest by cutting the lower branches of the pine trees and removing shrubs and brush along the sides of busy roads. this helps prevent fires from starting on the ground and can ease the spread of fires if they do occur.

planting native and diverse plants alongside the pines to naturalize the existing pine forests is another solution. ramos said this a primary focus of the sierra nevada global change observatory (obsnev), an organization that studies the long term effects of climate change in the mountains. still, ramos said even though scientists and workers at the observatory know how to implement this plan, the process is time-consuming and expensive and could take decades to reach fruition.

“it is very expensive to transform an artificial forest covered by pines into an area with brush, meadows and rivers,” she said. “you have to introduce diversity and you cannot do it in one single project. you have to do it in different phases and it takes a lot of money.”

climate change versus global change

unlike the california natural resources agency, the sierra nevada global change observatory doesn’t have a $1.5 billion investment package on their hands. still, obsnev is a unique organization in and of itself and proof that the spanish government is aware and dedicated to solving this issue.

as part of a larger network of global observatories formed under unesco, obsnev emphasizes global change rather than climate change. ramos said at times it is difficult to separate issues of climate change from human involvement in the change of landscapes over time.

“we speak about global change, not only climate change, because we found out that one of the most important drivers of change in sierra nevada has been the use of the land,” she said.  “of course climate change is also very important, but we’d prefer to refer to the changes that occur as a more global group of factors that also includes invasive species and contamination and other global phenomena.”

this proves true in spain, california and elsewhere. as erwin described california’s wildfire problem, “the biggest threat to the forest in sierra nevada, other than climate change, is fire exclusion. and the fact that we’ve excluded fire from these forests that would have burned every five to twenty years prior to european settlement and removal of indigenous californians. there’s also been so much development over the last 50 years of people putting houses in fire prone areas, so there’s way more buildings and human infrastructure for fires to burn up.”

so yes, climate change is a huge driver of wildfires but it’s easy to forget that behind this big idea of global warming are humans who for centuries have drastically modified landscapes. we can successfully combat wildfires with reforestation techniques, but at the same time we should also be aware of other ways in which we shape our surroundings, such as how we manage our forests and where and how we build homes in these fire-prone regions.

if the two sierra nevadas teach us anything, climate change is a global issue that everyone plays a part in. 

there’s certainly no lack of social justice issues to choose from in the 21st century, but i was particularly interested in songs about climate change. i didn’t expect much in the mainstream way — somehow ariana grande’s new song from the movie “don’t look up,” featuring the line “get your head out of your a**. listen to the goddamn qualified scientists. we really f****d it up, f****d it up this time,” didn’t seem as poetically transcendent as a bob dylan verse. 

instead, i looked back in the direction of folk and found pinegrove, an indie rock band with a new album titled “11:11” on the way. from the first single on the album, titled “orange” –– which was inspired by photos of an oregon wildfire circulating the web –– to songs such as “flora,” “respirate,” and “11th hour,” the themes of the environment and the increasing pressure of the climate crisis are clear.

in a recent interview, evan stephens hall, singer-songwriter and frontman for pinegrove, walked me through his songwriting process and inspiration behind the album. he also gave insight on how he incorporates activism in his daily life and how he copes with the current state of climate change.

this interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

q: looking at the tracklist, most songs have some form of allusion to nature and climate change. was this intentional from the start or was the larger theme revealed to you the more you wrote and recorded?

a: i always go in wanting to write honestly about whatever i’m thinking about and especially whenever i’m feeling. between march and may of 2020, i was feeling a lot of pretty new things, and a lot of pretty intense things, and so it’s no surprise to me that a lot of climate anxiety made it onto the album. once i started to see those themes, then i wanted to emphasize or strengthen the themes, so that each song could sort of speak to the other songs without, ideally, being too redundant.

q: in the youtube description of the song orange, you describe “the ethereal, almost dissociative feeling of being alive at the end of history.” in particular, you sing the lyrics, “i try to laugh, or sleep it off. that awful feeling something’s off.”

is this feeling –– that we’re witnessing the beginning of the end –– something that weighs on you often? how do you cope? and do you remain optimistic?

a: yeah, you know, for every year between 2016 and 2020, i was so despondent. i cope with it by writing music –– and i also have to say one incredible way to work through it is to get involved. i’ve volunteered dozens of hours phone banking for bernie [sanders] and it really felt good to have conversations with people. i’ve moved from a place of actual despondency about our future to something a little bit… you might almost call it optimistic.

q: how do you balance making a song that’s catchy and enjoyable to listen to while conveying a message about a topic as serious, and at times as complex, as climate change?

a: i do try to avoid being too didactic. i’ve always thought that it’s important for there to be enough space for the listener to put themselves in and step into the song and imagine it. at least for my vision, it needs to be sort of accessible in some way, and also abstract enough. there’s something interesting about saying something, but kind of reframing it as something more accessible. for me, it’s more like a catchy melody or something like that, but the idea is that there’s something for everybody there.

q: as you said, often in music, people find comfort in relatability, where they can recognize themselves or their experiences in the lyrics. the interesting thing is as climate change affects more and more people globally, this too will have a greater sense of universality. do you think in this respect, the number of songs about climate change will increase in the coming years? 

a: how could it be any other way? more people will personally know somebody who’s affected or they themselves will be affected and i think we’re just going to see more people talking about it. hopefully that results in some real change. but i wouldn’t think of it as a trend, it’s more of just like an alarm bell.

q: it’s interesting because when i look to the past i see music and activism being so tightly linked. where is the anthem for this generation?

a: i think that the way people consume music is a little bit different. i feel like everybody’s listening habits are very decentralized… but you’re right that music is a great format for activism. i think that [just music] won’t do on its own, but it’s part of the conversation.

q: there’s certainly a faction of music lovers who believe musicians shouldn’t be activists and simply just want to hear them make music. there’s a certain ‘shut up and play’ aspect to it. do you think musicians have a role as activists, to use their platforms for a greater cause?

a: there’s not a template that you can superimpose on every other artist, so i want to speak very narrowly here, but the way i feel is that i have a microphone and i want to say what’s on my mind. i’m making the sort of art that i want to make and people engaging with it is completely voluntary, so i really have no interest in entertaining this ‘shut up and play’ crowd. 

of course they’re saying stuff in the comments occasionally. but you know what, there are many, many more people who are saying like, ‘thanks for speaking about this,’ or best yet, ‘i haven’t thought about it in this way.’

q: would you consider yourself an activist? would you consider the music you create a form of activism?

a: i would, but i also want to push back slightly against just categorizing myself as an activist because in a certain way that says that i’m different than a regular person or regular citizen. in reality, the barrier to entry is non-existent. absolutely anybody can be an activist. and i think that even if you’re thinking remotely revolutionary thoughts, or you’re interested, or you’re just feeling upset about the climate, to feel that grief fully is a revolutionary action, and we need you in the movement.

i’m not a policy expert, i’m not a climate scientist, but i do have a lot of experience writing songs. this is just what i have to give and i think that everybody has a role in the coming times, and we need to kind of humbly embrace what that is and do it, to the best effect. that’s the way community works.

q: what are you hoping people will take away after listening to the album?

a: i hope that there are some people who will feel a little bit of comfort hearing these songs. it’s, in some small way, optimistic, though it’s honest about the challenges we face. hopefully it’s a bit of a rorschach. you can find what you need in the moment and that’s all welcome and that’s all good. i’m just happy people are listening.

— 

the new pinegrove album “11:11” is out now.

more are likely to follow—and with good reason.

in the u.s. alone more than 100 billion plastic bags are used each year. these bags take centuries to degrade and remain toxic long after, polluting waterways, oceans and cities.

still, there’s plenty of confusion and debate around plastic bans on both the political and practical level. it’s easy to get lost in the logistics of it all—but, at the heart of it, there’s one question: 

are bag laws effective?

plastic bag bans are often regarded as a low-hanging fruit in the grand scheme of plastic waste. everyone has seen plastic bags rolling across the street, caught in trees or floating in rivers. given that it is such a visible form of pollution, it is an easy target for plastic policies; and this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

as mark murray, executive director of californians against waste, explained, it is exactly this visibility which makes banning bags a powerful symbol against plastic pollution.

“i’m not going to pretend that banning single-use plastic bags is going to be a major reduction in plastic pollution, but the fact that they are so visible is part of the reason to target them,” murray said. “it’s easy for people to grasp that this is a wasteful product and it’s also pretty easy for people to see that there are alternatives.”

another advantage is that implementing bag laws can serve as a gateway to other plastic policies down the road. the district of columbia for instance, was a front-runner to the bag ban bandwagon, imposing a five-cent fee on all plastic and paper bags back in 2009. since this law was passed, the washington, d.c., government has been at the forefront of other plastic initiatives, becoming the second major u.s. city to ban single-use plastic straws in businesses and organizations selling or serving food or drinks.

lillian power, environmental protection specialist in district’s department of energy and environment (doee), said that implementing these additional policies has been easier thanks to the initial bag tax. 

“it really prepared a baseline as something to build off of, which has really helped us in our outreach campaigns for all these expanded regulations and requirements,” she said. “what it did was prepare these businesses for upcoming future changes and really realize that this is not the end of the line, it is just the beginning,” 

untangling the web

keeping track of different bag bans and taxes can be confusing. as discussed, washington, d.c., has a tax on both paper and plastic bags. in contrast, california passed a ban on single-use paper and plastic bags and began requiring stores to sell reusable grocery bags or recycled paper bags at a minimum of 10-cents per bag. meanwhile, new york state has a ban on plastic bags and a five-cent fee on paper bags. unlike washington, d.c., the money does not go directly to the government and subsequent plastic clean-up programs. the five cent charge is a fee, not a tax, so the proceeds go directly to the businesses instead. all of these regulations can be even more varied on the local and municipal level. 

the fact of the matter is that there isn’t a one-size fits all approach to bag laws. each type has its own advantages and disadvantages––and having a variety of structures to choose from means states and cities can choose a method that best suits their needs.

an outright ban can be a sweeping change with a powerful message, but it can also be difficult to implement in the face of plastic bag lobbyists and manufacturers who may be inclined to sue. enforcement also becomes an issue when a ban is implemented on a state-wide scale. 

a tax, on the other hand, might seem like a half-measure—but it is actually extremely effective at changing consumer behavior by making customers more mindful about their bag usage. the money collected from the tax can also be used for plastic cleanup as illustrated in washington, d.c., where revenue from the tax is put into a fund to clean up the local anacostia river, as well as purchase and distribute reusable bags to low-income and eldery populations in the district. 

murray noted that ultimately both bans and taxes are successful at reducing plastic bag use because it causes the consumer to consider their own bag usage with every purchase. 

“i think that having that charge upfront whether it’s in the form of a d.c. bag tax or in the form of having to buy a reusable bag … is causing people to reduce the number of bags that they generate,” he said. “both you and the checker at the store are conscious of the fact that these aren’t freebies. there’s no such thing as a free bag, it was never a free bag.”

these assertions are backed by numerous studies. in california, a report by calrecycle, a department within california’s environmental protection agency, found that six months after the ban was implemented, 86% of customers brought their own reusable bag or opted for no bag. consequently, there was an 85% reduction in the amount of plastic bags grocery stores provided to customers. washington, d.c.’s 5-cent charge has led to a 60% drop in overall single-use bags and significant reduction in plastic bags found in the anacostia river. thanks to the tax, the bag law has generated more than $19 million in revenue to use toward cleanup and education efforts over the past decade.

tips for success

in the wake of bag law successes in places like california and washington, d.c., many states and cities are eager to implement their own practices. however, gaining support for such a movement can be a daunting political challenge. 

tommy wells, director of d.c.’s department of energy and environment and the creator of washington, d.c.’s bag tax shared his advice on making people more accepting of bag laws.

wells explained that when he was first considering implementing the tax, businesses feared customers would become angry with them and assume the tax was another way to make money. as a result, wells implemented an extensive educational campaign to ensure people knew the tax was the government’s doing.

“we put ‘skip the bag, save the river’ stickers all over the bus and stores and we made it clear to everyone that the government was doing this,” he said. “people just get it now. it’s part of living here. some people will still grumble but there’s not enough out there for any politicians to say they would repeal it.”

powers added, “it does require really deliberate action on getting the word out … (the stickers) are one of those eloquently simple solutions where the cashiers are just pointing to the stickers and saying ‘call the doee, it’s not our fault.’”

the statistics back this claim with a survey commissioned by the doee showing 83% of dc residents and 90% of d.c. businesses support the bag law or are neutral towards it.

looking back at his work advocating for the legislation of california’s single-use bag ban, murray recommended gaining support and implementing laws on a local level. california was the first state with a uniform state-wide plastic bag reduction law, but that all began with cities like san jose and san francisco first implementing their own local laws to significant success. san francisco, in fact, was the first major us city to ban single-use plastics.

in terms of tangible steps, murray suggested reaching out to a local recycling coordinator, who can be an ally and resource for further political action.

“every community typically has a local recycling coordinator or a staff person for the city or county that works on these issues, whose task is to reduce waste and increase recycling,” he said. “not only can they help in terms of giving you a little bit of history, like if anyone tried this before, but they can also tell you who are the champions on the city council or on the board of supervisors…” 

murray said californians against waste employed this exact technique during their efforts to pass the single-use carryout bag ban. now as the organization looks to expand the scope of the ban––extending the policy beyond single-use plastics and beyond non-food retailers––they have continued efforts at the local level and remained in contact with recycling coordinators.

the future of plastic

when it comes to continued action after plastic bag bans, there are many routes to choose from. as californians against waste has demonstrated, one option is to expand upon bag law requirements, such as petitioning for a plastic ban beyond just single-use. another option is to ban other types of plastic, like washington, d.c., did with single-use straws. 

however, an increasingly important focus in the bag ban debate is the idea of “extended producer responsibility,” or epr for short. while most of the existing bag laws seek to change existing consumer behavior, epr legislation seeks to stop plastic waste at its source by taxing the producers of the plastic bags in the first place.

while this is certainly harder to implement in the face of huge plastic bag companies and lobbyists, this type of taxation requires plastic manufacturers to take responsibility for their actions, meaning at the end of the day, the polluter is the one that pays.

as jackie nuñez, program advocacy manager for the plastic pollution coalition, explained, advocating for this type of legislation is necessary because big companies will not reduce waste by their own accord.

“there is a place for it because historically time and again businesses won’t self-regulate themselves,” she said. “they need those parameters, you need those boundaries … the people who make this stuff should be responsible for it in life.”

while the task may seem intimidating, powers insisted this could be done from the local side.

“you just need to get resident support and you gotta pass the laws,” she said. “you’re not going to get these behemoths of industry to make these changes on a closed time scale unless they are 100% forced to.”

this is easier said than done, but epr laws are gaining traction in the u.s. in july of this year, maine became the first state in the u.s. to pass an epr packaging law requiring big corporations and manufactures to pay for a portion of the recycling costs of the packaging material (typically plastic) that they put into the market. oregon followed suit with a similar law in august. 

it hasn’t been so easy in california, where murray said californians against waste has been trying to implement epr laws for years, with little success. he added that while epr might be the right policy to implement, it’s not necessarily the easiest.

“sometimes the ban is the easier policy for policy makers in the public to wrap their arms around and understand,” he said. “we don’t always get to do the best thing when we’re advocating these policies.”

despite the hurdles, murray remains optimistic as more people become open to bag laws.

“at the beginning … we would pass one or two of these policies every few years and now policymakers are really seeking us out and seeking out these policies,” he said. “really, for the first time we talk about circular economy and producer responsibility and they know what we’re talking about … i feel like policymakers are getting it.”

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editor’s note: this story is part of the planet forward series “so long, single-use?” check back over the next several weeks for more stories about how communities and individuals can––and are––reducing single-use plastic waste.