Kauai

January 30, 2011 by USA Post

Kauai, The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today welcomed the mayors, county councils and residents of Maui and Hawaii counties of Kauai for the Prohibition of restrictions adopting plastic bags – reduce waste and environmental protection in one action. “The leadership shown by the counties of Maui and Kauai to ban these bags will help keep their environment pristine,” said Jared Blumenfeld, EPA regional administrator for the Pacific Southwest. “This will not only reduce the amount of plastic in the counties, but it will reduce the number of bags that end up in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch -. A huge area of floating plastic waste”

County of Maui and Kauai join American Samoa to ban plastic bags in the Pacific region. Other cities like San Francisco, Portland, San Jose, Santa Monica, Marin County, South Padre, Texas, the coast of North Carolina, and other California cities like Malibu, Palo Alto, Fairfax County and Los Angeles have banned the bag. California cities of Fremont, Sunnyvale, Santa Cruz, Trent Hills, Long Beach, Santa Clara County and other areas such as New York, Seattle, Boston, Phoenix, Arkansas, Oregon, Vermont, Connecticut and Maryland are also considering legislation to ban plastic bags. Other countries that have banned free plastic bags include China, Bangladesh, Australia, Italy, South Africa, Ireland, and Taiwan.

The “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” refers to two areas of plastic waste floating in the Pacific Northwest that have been identified by NOAA and many other organizations. These areas are located in the eastern and western Pacific and are composed of marine debris. The main type of waste in the patch with plastic litter and other debris such as discarded fishing nets. Much of the debris is very small pieces of plastic debris floating through broken hotodegradation, and surveys estimate that there may be up to six times more plastic than plankton in parts of plate waste. County of Maui and Kauai action will help protect species of marine life and birds of the Pacific, trying to eat plastic debris after taking food.