|
Plastic Bags
Plastic bags are extremely detrimental to the environment. They are produced easily and sold cheaply by the million mainly to grocery stores who give them away about as fast as they get them in. They use oil to produce and contain materials that do not decompose. While they are convenient for consumers, they are rarely recycled and often found littering our trees, blowing in fields, or worse, trapped around animal’s heads or lodged in their throats. A solution? Reusable grocery bags. They can hold around five times the weight of an average plastic grocery bag and most are made out of eco-friendly materials. Although these are catching on fast, it is still not enough. It is hard to remember to bring them to the grocery, an inconvenience many people don’t want to deal with.  A better solution? Offer a small discount (five or ten cents) for each bag brought in to reuse, or ban plastic bags altogether. Many countries are imposing this ban or some sort of tax in hopes of discouraging the use of plastic grocery bags, and some cities in the U.S. have already imposed laws banning them. Why not Lansing/East Lansing? Michigan State has done a phenomenal job in encouraging the “green” movement, and what better place to start the ban in Michigan than in the capitol? ~ Sarah Palmisano For more information regarding plastic bags, take a look at some of the websites below: www.reusablebags.com www.onebagatatime.com www.reusethisbag.com http://blog.epa.gov/blog/tag/bags/ |