FIZ & CO.

Farjana Khaled, Zarif Chowdhury, Iffat Iqbal

Table of Contents

1. Title Page
2. Table of Contents
2. Position
3. History of the Problem
1. How did it develop?
2. How was it discovered?
3. What have other parties done to help solve
this issue?
4. What are the relevant laws or treaties?
4. Causes of the problem
4. Consequences of the problem
1. Present
2. Future (5, 10, 25, 50 years in the future)
5. Proposed solution(s) to the problem
1. Action Steps
7. The position of those who oppose you
1. Rebuttal to opposing position

8. Works Cited Page

The plastic bag finds its origins in a Swedish company called

Celloplast who first created this innovative design in order to further
ease the workload of the average man. Exxonmobil, a large scale
conglomerate dealing in the fossil fuel and plastics industry, first
introduced plastic bags to the Americans around the late 70s. Which
sparked a lot of controversy due to the fact that the plastic bag was
useful for a part of the greater society, the large urbanized and dense
living areas where pollution and businesses thrive also known as
cities. These megapolises have a large amount of of the population of
the surrounding areas because of the promise of jobs and venturing
into the business world. However this results in people wanting to be
in close proximity to their occupation locations which in turn leads to
grocery stores located in a way such that a civilian does not have to
travel very far in order to get their groceries.
This is where the problem arises, because of the high speed city
life the multipurpose plastic bag is preferred but the quality of it
makes it not durable while not decomposing for years past our
lifespans. This leads to the eventual buildup of the plastic in the
environment and decimates local populations of fish and other
organisms. This problem rose because of this lifestyle choice and as
a result the issue was discovered to be severe was the 1997
discovery of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a giant gyre of plastic
litter that has collected in the North Pacific Ocean. according to the
triplepundit. And in order to protect wildlife and animals organizations
like peta and other green groups like us have started to support the

bag ban. Legislation has been passed to reduce the imprint of plastic
bags in California by a complete ban not only that legislations are
currently being passed to increase the taxes on the plastic bag. Even
in the EU the governments are debating whether or not plastic bags
should be reduced due to the impending catastrophe that it may
cause.

Humans are creative, extraordinary creatures that have the

power to make anything they please for themselves, however they
are inexplicably lazy which is why much of our creations were made
for the sole purpose of serving us, from slaves to robots and even
plastic. The main cause of the immense amount of plastic bags piling
up in our landfills is US. It is simply too much work to bring a bag
from home when we know that there will be plastic bags waiting for
us at the register. A lot of people dont recycle plastic bags either so it
just ends up in landfills. Recycling plastic bags are hard as well and
most of the time they are just burned because it is expensive to burn
down the material. It can also take hundreds of years for plastic bags
to break down so dumping them isnt a solution.
The consequences of our actions have resulted in hurting
animals and the environment. Overuse of plastic bags can be
detrimental especially when they spread to the ocean. Animals can
choke on the plastic and possibly die. Over the course of a single year
we use over 1 trillion plastic bags and most of which end up in the
ocean. In the foreseeable future we can see that if we continue to use
plastic bags at such a high rate, we will only be hurting our wildlife
even further. More animals will continue to die due to our
carelessness. 25 years from now, we might have to start clearing land
for more landfills. There will be more litter everywhere, especially in
the ocean.

The number of plastic bag production is steadily increasing but only a small amount is being recycled.
The rest are just dumped in landfills.

Our main solution to reducing the use of plastic bags in the

United States of America is to use reusable tote bags. Our company
believes that although there are other alternatives to plastic bags
such as switching to different materials to create biodegradable
plastic bags. The tote bag is the best option and could become a
huge success with adequate marketing strategies. In order to make
the tote bag an actually useful product we should charge customers
seventy five cents for each plastic bag the customer uses and takes.
In an economy where everyone is concerned about their own money
they wont want to spend money on something so simple as plastic
bags especially when they will need a couple of them and of course
pay tax above all that.

The more we reuse bags, the less of a carbon footprint we would have. This will be much better for
the environment.

Also people will want to use tote bags if they were more durable
and did not rip so easily. The straps and the actual bag itself need to
be made out of a stronger material. Our company chose canvas and
cotton these are the strongest materials that should be used for tote

bags. Polypropylene is the known material that tote bags use but
these bags also cant hold much. Cotton and canvas are much
heavier but are also machine washable and can carry a great
assortment of goods. The fact that they are heavier is not a big deal
because in the end we all want something durable and something
that can save us money. The tote bags purpose is to carry goods in a
sufficient manner and that is what these materials can do. Another
material we can use is jut and that is because it is made out of plant
fiber and is biodegradable. Another thing that will draw customers in
is the design of the tote bag. If the design of the tote bag is as
fashionable as a designer handbag then most people will buy it. This
will help the economy and reduce the usage of plastic bags.

Our company FIZ & CO. is located on Broadway and Lafayette, Soho.

Those who oppose plastic bags have only two reasons to oppose
plastic bags. The first one being they dont want to ban plastic bags
instead they would rather tax each plastic bag separately. The second
reason is they would like to have their own personal choice in the
matter. They do not want somebody else deciding such a trivial
matter for them. Their position somewhat matches ours. We are not
banning the plastic bags right away instead we are charging seventy
five cents per plastic bag. So that matches the idea of the first
opposition. The second opposition will take some persuasion and
excellent marketing strategies. If we appeal to these opposers about

all the pros and benefits of using a tote bag then they will slowly
come to our side. The designs will definitely attract them since they
seem to be into the superficial part of things. Also the tote bags
outweigh the use of plastic bags and it would be a losing move to go
against tote bags.
Works Cited
"Data." Plan B Updates. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 June 2016.
"EU Lawmakers Vote to Reduce Plastic Bag Use." EurActivcom EU Lawmakers
Vote to Reduce Plastic Bag Use Comments. N.p., 16 Apr. 2014. Web. 07 June
2016.
Petru, Alexis. "A Brief History of the Plastic Bag." Triple Pundit People Planet
Profit. N.p., 05 Nov. 2014. Web. 07 June 2016.
"Plastics, Human Health and Environmental Impacts: The Road Ahead Journalist's Resource." Journalists Resource. N.p., 09 Oct. 2014. Web. 07
June 2016.
Taylor, Kerry. "50 Reasons to Go Green with Reusable Shopping Bags."
Squawkfox RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 June 2016.
"Top Five Reasons to Take Your Own Shopping Bags to the Store." PETA Top Five
Reasons to Take Your Own Shopping Bags to the Store Comments. N.p., n.d.
Web. 07 June 2016.