Articles for tag: beach cleanups, environmental policy, Ocean Conservancy, plastic bag bans, plastic pollution

A red plastic cup on the shore

Plastic Bag Bans Are Working—And the Ocean Has the Data to Prove It

April Joy Jovita

A new peer-reviewed study published in Science has confirmed what environmental advocates have long suspected: banning or taxing plastic bags significantly reduces their presence in beach litter. Drawing on nearly four decades of data from Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup, the research shows that jurisdictions with plastic bag policies saw a 25 to 47 percent ...