City Council bags ban on…bags
July 22, 2008
After reading the Baltimore Sun article this morning about the City Council’s failure to pass a ban on plastic bags in grocery stores and retail chains, I had one question: Are those who want to replace plastic bags with paper barking up the wrong tree? (Yes, that was an attempt at a pun.)
But seriously — those in support of the measure, voted down by the council 11-3, say they are concerned about the amount of garbage created by plastic bags and this is certainly a legitimate concern. But on the other hand, those against the bill said they did not think that tapping natural resources to make more paper bags would help the environment any more.
As it was so aptly put by City Councilwoman Rochelle “Rikki” Spector, “It takes trees to make paper bags.”
Is it, after all, not the material itself but our use of the material that needs to be put in check? I prefer plastic bags for their sturdiness — especially when holding products that tend to perspire in bags like milk or ice cream — and for their convenient handles. I also save them to reuse as garbage bags.
But I also throw away my share of plastic bags and could do more for the environment like save them for the bag recycling bins I see outside many grocery stores, or bring my own cloth shopping bag to the store to cut down on plastic bag use.
But, quite honestly, that requires a little more effort on everyone’s part and I don’t know that any amount of activism and raising awareness will be able to get every shopper to consistently change their habits.
What do you think? Should we keep pushing the paper because at least it’s a step in the right direction or should we “bag” that approach (sorry, I couldn’t help myself) and start addressing people’s shopping behavior?
LIZ FARMER, Business Writer
(picture taken by Assistant Legal Editor Christina Doran in downtown Baltimore)
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Stores in the United States should do what stores in other parts of the world have been doing for a long time - make people buy the bags they use, paper or plastic. Even a cost of a few cents per bag will help us realize just how easy it really is to bring our own cloth totes to the store. Then again, Americans are notorious for buying things that we don’t need or really even want.