Global Breaking News - Wednesday, September 30, 2026

This is the holiday season in the United States. People are buying gifts and carrying them home, usually in plastic shopping bags. They are only a small amount of the huge number of disposable plastic bags that are used all year long to contain groceries and other items. Janet Larsen directs research for the Earth Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. She says too many plastic bags end up as litter, polluting waterways. “They get caught in bushes and trees. In storm water systems, they end up clogging up sewers.”
* disposable = 일회용의, 사용 후 버리게 되어 있는/ end up as ~ = 결국 ~이 되다/ litter = 쓰레기/ waterway = 수로/ clog = 막다, 막히다/ sewer = 하수관 

In an effort to keep plastic bags out of the environment, California recently became the first state to ban businesses from giving new plastic bags to customers. Some other states and cities charge a small amount of money for every bag given out. That is meant to encourage people to bring their own bags when they go shopping. Mark Daniels is senior vice president for environmental policy at Hilex Poly, one of the country’s largest plastic bag manufacturers and recyclers. He says people should be able to get new plastic bags without paying.  Mr. Daniels says they are a good environmental choice. “Every single scientific litter study that has been done always show that plastic retail are a fraction of one percent.” Some environmentalists claim that plastic bags are clogging landfills. However, Mark Daniels points to a study by the Environmental Protection Agency that says that is not always true. “All plastic bags, not just retail bags, are 4/10ths of one percent of the waste stream.”
* ban A from B = A가 B하는 것을 금지하다/ give out = 나눠 주다/ encourage = 격려(고무)하다, 권장(장려)하다/ fraction = 부분, 일부; 분수/ landfill = 쓰레기 매립지/ stream = (수많은 일의) 연속(이어짐)