Patch Blog: Plastic Bags Are Things of the Past

For the sake of convenience we as a society have embraced the plastic bag. It is light, cheap, and easy to make.

We use it to carry our groceries, hold our trash, and even contain our pet waste. We appreciate plastic bags, they are ?

So why have San Francisco, Pasadena, West Hollywood, Santa Monica and (among many others) enacted an all-out ban on the poor baggy?

The idea of the plastic bag as a disposable commodity has been around for decades. But the thought of using something we have created just once doesn't sit well with many people and the plastic bag is becoming a poster child for where our society has gone wrong when it comes to environmental degradation.

Sure, recycling picked up once grocery stores were required to set up stations some years back but by and large most bags do not get recycled and who knows how many end up in our gutters, rivers and oceans. The images you can find online of animals mistaking plastic bags for jellyfish or other food are countless. And of course that is what we can see with our naked eye. Once plastic breaks down, smaller fish see shiny (plastic) objects and confuse them for food. 

Don't care about the environment? Consider the health effects of someone eating the fish that eats the plastic. Or consider the economic impacts of a state park or beach that is littered with trash after each rain storm. The negative affects of plastic bags are numerous. While the benefits are also, they just don't add up.

Glendale is pursuing a plastic bag ban and city council will vote on it today, Oct. 25 during their meeting at 6 p.m. The ordinance is far reaching - no more plastic bags can be distributed by grocery stores (and other establishments) and a 10-cent surcharge will be in place for those who want paper bags. The surcharge is to be absorbed by the establishment and a penny won't go to the government (please read the ordinance in its entirety - I am obviously leaving out some details). This ordinance mimics one that was passed by the County of Los Angeles earlier this year. 

The trend is clear. If Glendale wants to portray an image of family-friendly, future-oriented, and progressive then we know what needs to be done. Contact your council members and let them know you feel. It's good policy and it's good practice.

Plastic Baggy your time was short, but its time for you to go.