HONOLULU — The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday applauded the mayors, county councils and residents of Maui and Kaua‘i counties for enacting restrictions banning plastic shopping bags — reducing their waste and protecting the environment in a single action, a
HONOLULU — The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday applauded the mayors, county councils and residents of Maui and Kaua‘i counties for enacting restrictions banning plastic shopping bags — reducing their waste and protecting the environment in a single action, a press release states.
“The leadership shown by the counties of Maui and Kaua‘i in banning these bags will help keep their environments pristine,” said Jared Blumenfeld, EPA’s Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest.
“This will not only decrease the amount of plastic in the counties, but it will reduce the number of bags that end up in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch — an enormous area of floating plastic waste.”
These areas are located in both the eastern and western Pacific and are composed of marine debris. The main type of garbage in the patch is plastic litter along with other debris such as derelict fishing nets.
Much of the debris is very small bits of floating plastic debris broken down through photodegradation, and surveys estimate that there may be as much as six times more plastic than plankton in parts of the garbage patch.
Maui’s and Kaua‘i’s action will help protect many species of Pacific marine and bird life, which attempt to consume the plastic debris after mistaking it for food, the press release states.
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