There has been a flurry of media coverage on California's effort to ban statewide the use of single-use plastic bags. Of course, here in Seattle we tried to impose a use fee on both plastic and paper bags but voters overturned the Council's decision after a massive, million dollar hoodwink campaign by the oil industry. I've blogged about all this before.
I believe it's time to take another look at this issue. It's time for Seattle to ban the use of single-use plastic shopping bags. An outright ban! (We should exempt those plastic bags we all use at the grocery story to hold fresh vegetables, meat, fish and ice cream.) Plastic bags contribute to litter, they accumulate in our oceans and harm marine life, and they cause a negative drag on our forests. We need bold, decisive action, we need to demonstrate leadership on this issue and that's what I intend to do.
Here are some good background resources for our discussion about banning single-use plastic bags in Seattle.
Plastic Bags Are Killing Us from Salon.com on August 10, 2007.
Are Plastic Grocery Bags Sacking the Environment? from National Geographic on September 2, 2003.