How Washington State's Policy Of "plastic On Every Corner" Will Cost Tax Payers Millions!

Environmental protesters and plastic bag monsters may be wasting all their energy on plastic bags while an equally menacing environmental enemy threatens our nation's sidewalks!

Like a Trojan horse, few people even realize that this obvious misuse of tax money perpetrated through an environmental pollutant may plot to bankrupt us evermore and eventually risk to tear our nation apart. To make sure it's clear what we're talking about, a detectable warning mat or truncated dome tile is the usually yellow or red rectangular mat that you've probably seen being installed in your city's sidewalks.

The choice to add these devices came from more than 50 years of research and testing both here in the states and internationally which determined that the blind were able to actually sense that they were entering a potentially dangerous situation when they encountered one of these tiles.

Detectable warning mats 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 mats are a valuable 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 challenge is that 90% of the products that are being used for this purpose are plastic based. Believe it or not, polymer resins, fiberglass, plastic, and other composites will never be fully UV resistant. As you probably have heard, Although plastics will neverbiodegrade they will photodegrade, which means that over time they never fully disappear but will increasingly lose shape, strength, and usefulness. This is the reason why companies that produce these plastic mats set the useful life of their products at less than 10 years.

In view of the goal of the American Disability Act is to guarantee equal access and equal rights 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.

Even though Washington State is typically known as a green state, it's still shocking that our conservative estimates show that over a 50 year period, the state of Washington will create the demand needed for the production of the equivalent of more than 616 Million Plastic Bags and will cause this already bankrupt state to spend more than $422 million tax dollars over the next 50 years just replacing plastic mats!

If you consider that every sidewalk corner is mandated to remain compliant and accessible, isn't it fair-minded to require the government to do the job right the first time by using sustainable products?!

After all, 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 estimates, if other states would just take this same practical approach as Nevada, Kentucky, and Virginia, the U.S. will save tax payers 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!

Everyone knows that the government is bankrupt and that a return to economic prosperity is in question, why not prohibit this kind of waste and encourage the construction of sustainable products and the green economy at the same time?!