It Has Always Been a Pet Peeve of Mine
What do you usually see as you drive along our highways? Plastic bags hanging from tree branches? Plastic bags cluttering up the gutters? Plastic bags swirling in the wind? or Plastic bags filled with other garbage just lying there. Doesn’t that make you mad?
Some call them an Arizona Parachute!
Well guess what, finally there are many initiatives around the country that are trying to get rid of them. Cities are starting to realize the cost of this ubiquitous nuisance to their communities. As bags fly rampantly around the local towns and cities, they are realizing it costs a lot of money to clean up. Recently Los Angeles passed a resolution banning the plastic bag. Initiatives in San Francisco and New York are also evaluating this type of action.
Read the full article from The Street.Com that tells you what is happening across the country;
http://www.thestreet.com/story/12037191/1/why-you-cant-count-on-the-plastic-bag-anymore.html
Many Towns and Cities have already acted. See the following article on Sacramento California!
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2010/jun/01/plastic-bag-bill-ban-moves-ahead-sacramento/
Corporate Responsibility is a Major Issue
Believe it or not, Walmart corporate is working on a sustainability plan to reduce their useage of plastic bags. The number they produce is astounding! The problem is they are reducing the weight of the bags and utilizing recycled plastics to make their bags. Are they just trying to save costs or are they truly environmentally/sustainably motivated? I guess it’s good on the one hand, but wouldn’t it be better if they just got rid of them! Go to the following link to read more;
http://corporate.walmart.com/global-responsibility/environment-sustainability/plastic-bags
Dang that’s a lot of bags!
Austin Texas Did a Study on the Cost of Managing their Plastic Bag Waste!
The sobering statistic is that Americans use over 100 Billion bags each year (2011 figures). This equates to 325 bags per capita! Austin tried to quantify why it was an impact on their City. Their city staff estimated that it cost $850,000 a year to clean up the plastic bag mess. Intangible costs were those associated with the health impacts from plastics migrating into our water and food supplies!
If everyone brought this up to their local government and passed ordinances to stop the use of the disposable plastic bag, wouldn’t we be better off?
If you want to see the Austin report from 2009, you will have to download the following document!
Get Your City to Ban Plastic Bags!
Make your world Sustainable!
Transition Town Payson 