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Why Oregon Will Buy The Equivalent Of 616 Million Plastic Bags!
Considering that every single sidewalk corner needs to remain accessible and compliant, isn't it reasonable to mandate that the government do the job right the first time by prioritizing the use of sustainable products?! Believe it or not, other less historically green states like Nevada, Virginia, and Kentucky no longer allow plastic based detectable warning mats and for their part will save their tax payers and the environment from the following damages: Nevada: -$167,571,589 tax payer dollars saved by not allowing plastic-based detectable warning mats. -The equivalent of 244,485,363 plastic bags worth of non-recyclable plastic from being created. Kentucky -$273,514,764 tax payer dollars saved by not allowing plastic-based detectable warning mats. -The equivalent of 399,055,453 plastic bags worth of non-recyclable plastic from being created. Virginia -$499,756,206 tax payer dollars saved by not allowing plastic-based detectable warning mats. -The equivalent of 729,139,575 plastic bags worth of non-recyclable plastic from being created. By these conservative calculations, if other states would just take this same proactive approach as Nevada, Kentucky, and Virginia, the U.S. will save a total of $19,464,215,270 and prevent the creation of the equivalent of 28,398,105,875 plastic bags worth of non-recyclable plastic over the next 50 years! While California and other states think about a full scale ban on single use plastic bags in their stores, few people are even aware of another environmental battle going on in their sidewalks! Like a Trojan horse, few people even realize that this obvious misuse of tax dollars perpetrated through an environmental poison may conspire to bankrupt our country further and ultimately risk to tear our nation apart. To clarify for those who still don't know what I'm talking about, a detectable warning mat or truncated dome tile is the rectangular mat with the bumps on it that you have no doubt seen increasingly in every sidewalk corner in your neighborhood and since 2001 the American Disability Act has required a detectable warning device of a certain size and dimension be placed on every corner of every street in the U.S.. The choice to add these devices started from years of study and testing both here in the states and abroad which determined that the blind were able to effectively distinguish that they were entering a potentially dangerous location when they encountered a detectable warning mat. They were first mandated for usage at mass transit locations like subway and train stations in 1991 after it was shown that these mats really do save lives. Honestly, detectable warning devices are an essential addition to the transit centers and streets and do help keep those suffering from blindness and other disabilities safe while out in public space. The dilemma is that 90% of the products that are being used for this purpose are made of plastic. Believe it or not, polymer resins, fiberglass, plastic, and other composites will never be fully UV resistant. While these products do not biodegrade they do photodegrade, which means that over time they never fully disappear but will increasingly lose shape, strength, and usefulness. That's why companies that produce these plastic mats set the useful life of their products at less than 10 years. If the goal of the American Disability Act is to guarantee equal rights and equal access for all people of this U.S. citizens, having materials allowed for usage that fall out of compliance before the end of the useful life of the area that it seeks to give access, is nothing more than a waste of tax dollars and in this case also an environmental catastrophe. Everybody knows that the government is bankrupt and the future of the U.S. economy is in question, why not prevent this kind of waste and encourage the construction of sustainable products and the green economy at the same time?! Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com See how much each city in Oregon is wasting by allowing plastic-based products in their sidewalks. Click here to see more and sign the petition Or look for another state here |
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