econlife - The Unintended Consequences of Plastic Bag Bans by Elaine Schwartz

When I walk with my friend Eli and her dog Dosa, we take our plastic bags. Originally from ShopRite or the local farm stand, the bags were filled with groceries. Now, handy for dog poop, they reside in a bin under my sink until I grab one.

In more than 240 U.S. municipalities, California, and soon New York, those bags have disappeared. Because of bag bans or bag fees, many fewer people are re-using them.

And that could be the problem.

Plastic Bag Ban Surprises

Through a DCB (disposable carryout bag) fee or a ban, we shop with many fewer lightweight plastic bags. Because paper bags and fabric totes replace them, our plastic waste plunges by millions of pounds.

But there is a problem.

Those paper bags and fabric bags have a substantial carbon footprint–more than what it took to make the DCBs. Just think of how a tree becomes paper. You are eliminating an environmentally benevolent plant, using toxic chemicals, and then doing some hefty processing and transporting. It gets even worse with a tote bag. To have a smaller global warming impact than a DCB,  your cotton bag has to be reused more than 131 times. Then, if those DCBs had become garbage hags at home, you have to use your tote as much as a whopping 393 times to offset a DCB’s global warming potential.

These are the amount of use numbers from a 2006 U.K. study that compared the global warming potential of DCBs (aka HDPEs) to reusable bags:

Furthermore, when there are no DCBs, we need more plastic garbage bags. Using data from California, one researcher reported a surge in demand for four gallon garbage bags while sales of other sizes also increased. The result was a massive consumption shift as we bought 11.5 million more pounds of garbage bags and used 40 million fewer pounds of DCBs.

You can see the pop in garbage bag sales just after the DCB ban:

At this point you could be thinking there’s got to be more and there is. We just have to look beyond the carbon footprint from greenhouse gases. When we consider all of the waste generated by plastic, we could arrive at a new conclusion. As always in economics, we have tradeoff. A ban creates more emissions but less non-biodegradable litter.

So, if you care about non-biodegradable litter, then the DCB ban is for you.

Our Bottom Line: Pigovian Taxes

A bag ban or fee could be called a Pigovian tax. Arthur Pigou developed the idea to cope with negative externalities. Defined as the harm done to an uninvolved third party when, for example, someone plays loud music in a dormitory or pollutes a stream, a negative externality needs an incentive to discourage its use. Dr. Pigou said the solution was a tax. When something becomes more expensive, people do less of it.

On a graph, the higher cost looks like this:

Bag bans and bag fees create a higher price. That price might not be in dollars but they do necessitate some costly inconvenience.

My sources and more: This Planet Money newsletter had all we need to know about the downside of the plastic bag ban. But for more detail, this paper and this U.K. study look more precisely at ban “leakage.” Lastly, the NY Times showed the regulatory side through New York’s new bag fee.

Ideal for the classroom, econlife.com reflects Elaine Schwartz’s work as a teacher and a writer. As a teacher at the Kent Place School in Summit, NJ, she’s been an Endowed Chair in Economics and chaired the history department. She’s developed curricula, was a featured teacher in the Annenberg/CPB video project “The Economics Classroom,” and has written several books including Econ 101 ½ (Avon Books/Harper Collins). You can get econlife on a daily basis! Head to econlife.

econlife - When Awards Give Us More or Less Than We Expect by Elaine Schwartz

An award solved a problem at German Wikipedia. It had been typical for someone to write only one article.

But then they created an award. People who wrote multiple entries got a special badge printed on their profile page. Their names were also listed near the award’s description. While the recognition had a benefit, the cost to Wikipedia was minimal. Before it existed, 35% of their writers submitted another article. Afterwards, 42%.

For Wikipedia, an award did what it was supposed to do. Others have not.


Awards That Backfire

In one study, students who got a “perfect attendance award” subsequently diminished the days they went to school. Researchers have hypothesized that the recipients realized it was okay to do less. They concluded that awards should not honor what you are supposed to do.

At econlife, we’ve written about Olympic medal winners. Of course the gold medal winners are the happiest but so too are the bronze recipients. However, many silver medalists are not quite as ecstatic. The reason? Because the gold was their focus.

Recipients could also be unhappy when too many awards are given. We might call this phenomenon award inflation. Or, you might devalue an award when giving it to people who don’t deserve it. If a recipient is a friend, family, or someone getting unearned adulation, then the award loses some of its credibility.

Funny Awards

Sometimes a “fake” award can make fun of the real thing and still generate admiration for the recipients. Halle Berry received a Worst Actress Golden Raspberry (a Razzie) for her performance in Catwoman (1/4 from Roger Ebert; 3.3/10 from IMDb ). During an acceptance speech that mimicked the Academy Awards, she warmly thanked Warner Brothers and all the people it takes to create so bad a film.

If you are a fan of The Office (as am I), you will enjoy this Dundie award ceremony. For some smiles, do take a look:

Our Bottom Line: Boosting the Market

Awards are a social experience. Group appreciation is supposed to inspire certain behaviors like community service or high grades. At work, management could be saying thank you for many years of service or the armed forces might want to honor bravery. Most Nobel Prizes are for scholarly achievements.

Because awards exist in social territory, they complement the market. The law of supply says we produce more when price climbs higher. But when cash is not enough, awards provide an extra incentive. Sort of like an energy bar, they give a boost to the market (and to German Wikipedia).

My sources and more: Thanks to Hidden Brain for an awards podcast that provided most of my facts.

Ideal for the classroom, econlife.com reflects Elaine Schwartz’s work as a teacher and a writer. As a teacher at the Kent Place School in Summit, NJ, she’s been an Endowed Chair in Economics and chaired the history department. She’s developed curricula, was a featured teacher in the Annenberg/CPB video project “The Economics Classroom,” and has written several books including Econ 101 ½ (Avon Books/Harper Collins). You can get econlife on a daily basis! Head to econlife.

izzit.org is Open for Business by Donna Corcoran

What do From Poop to Profits, Freedom’s Sound and Drew Carey have in common?  They’re all videos from izzit.org that truly engage students in business courses.

In most high schools, business classes are electives competing for the opportunity to educate today’s students on the principles of sound business decision-making as owners, investors and consumers.  In order to increase enrollment, it is essential that business courses are relevant and exciting—incorporating “fun” with thought-provoking challenges.  This is a much easier proposition when you have izzit.org in your corner.

I’ll admit, it was the free DVD option that enticed me to try izzit.org, but it was the quality of the resultant classroom debates, and projects generated by the DVDs and current events that really hooked me.  Why?  Because they hooked the students! When I first shared a DVD, it was hundreds of students – and three budget cuts – ago. Yet I consistently get the same student reactions: they are enthusiastic and interactive!

I define a great day as one where the bell rings before the students are ready to leave.  izzit.org days are great days!  In my classroom we post two critical sets of questions:

1) Is there an unintended consequence?
2) Who chooses? Who benefits?  Who pays? What’s fair? 

These question sets help students frame their responses in more thoughtful and encompassing ways.  I often hear students discussing the issues down the hall after class.  Many times they return the following day – or week – with additional higher-level follow-up.  What more can a teacher ask?

School goals in my district include differentiated instruction and rigor.  The Teacher Guide that comes with each DVD facilitates the process of differentiating for various student populations, while keeping the information relevant and rigorous.  Much of the work is done for me. And in the days of having to do more with less, it’s invaluable to have a trustworthy source at a price I can afford.  As a district trainer for CRISS (Creating Independence through Student-owned Strategies), I use the izzit.org materials in my workshops as examples of excellent student-centered resources.

My biggest concern, frankly, is that more business teachers should become aware of the great resources available through izzit.org. Although the videos are certainly pertinent in a variety of curricular areas, many of my colleagues think of them as social studies resources. This simply is not the case! Eminent Domain is a perfect for Business Law, as is Markets Without Borders. Students in Introduction to Business and Entrepreneurship LOVE Free Trade and the Win-Win Trading Game.  They walk away with a clearer understanding of the world, and their individual choices. I remind students they are always voting with their dollars and their actions. Students in Consumer Education chose to lend money through Kiva.org after viewing the Pennies a Day video.

I make it my business to spread the word at business education conventions – izzit.org is open for business! Student activities that engage, teacher lesson plans and assessments--all in one great package? That’s a win/win!

It Wouldn't Be November If.....

We didn't give you a POGO!!!

Pick one, get one FREE!!!

Raise the Wage teaches your students about the unintended consequences of raising the minimum wage.

The Great Depression 2.0 teaches your students about the causes of the Great Depression.

Click here to learn more about these two educational videos.

Energy Solutions: Who Chooses? New Release Exploring the Unintended Consequences of Energy Decisions.

It's not a trick for October, it's a treat! We have another new release for you.

Check out Energy Solutions: Who Chooses?

Join Johan Norberg on another exploratory adventure about the unintended consequences of energy decisions like ethanol and fracking around the world, from Germany to the U.S.

Teachers and homeschoolers, you can select this new video as your Free Annual Video. All you need to do is create a FREE account here. 

Having a FREE membership with izzit.org allows you to receive a FREE DVD each year, which includes Table of Contents, Teacher's Guide, Discussion Questions, Quizzes and more. For each year you teach, all you need to do is provide feedback after using the video. We also provide you with access to our Student Zone, Kid Zone, Online Quizzes, Current Events, Educational Standard Alignments Tool and so much more. 


Stay connected with us on:

Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Vimeo

Don't forget you can stream MOST of our educational videos directly from our website, our YouTube channel, and our Vimeo channel!