I wouldn’t want you to think that you are behind Bangladesh and Bhutan where plastic bags are concerned.
Lots is happening right here, but first, a bit of plastic perspective. Plastic bags largely displaced paper bags as the most common type of shopping bag during the 1980s and early 1990s. There has been no broad government action against the litter problem.
Proper household waste management (reuse when possible and not littering) is considered a personal responsibility or a locally enforced misdemeanor. It appears that there are many of you who do not take this responsibility seriously as evident by all the litter I see by the sides of the road as I hop by, but that is not the topic today, so I’ll spare you my lecture, but you know who you are.
On March 27, 2007, San Francisco became the first city to ban common plastic shopping bags, followed shortly by Oakland. Starting July 2007, all large supermarkets in the state of California were required by law to take back and recycle plastic shopping bags. Portland, Oregon was next to ban the pesky bags which are also banned in at least 30 towns in Alaska. Seattle has recently proposed a 20 cent green fee on plastic bags, to go into effect in 2009.
Closer to home, the Whole Foods Market chain (Tulsa has one of these stores, I hear) is now plastic bag free, and remember that I told you that Homeland and Sustainable Shawnee will be offering reusable bags for sale, as does Wal-Mart. So, even though your government hasn’t banned plastic bags you will have plenty of opportunity to ban them yourselves; you don’t have to be told what to do. You now know the right thing to do and it isn’t hard.
It’s not as hard as catching flies, I bet. Next week, more on plastic: Bottles this time. Stay tuned. Gotta go catch flies.
