It’s time to sack plastic bags

Published 12:19 pm Wednesday, June 18, 2014

The pollution associated with plastic bags is tremendous. Plastic bags are lethal, killing at least two million birds, whales, dolphins, seals, sea lions and turtles every year.

Nearly 90 percent of floating marine litter is made of plastic: 100 million tons of plastic are polluting the world’s oceans. Every three years, the amount of plastic contributing to the pollution of the world’s oceans doubles.

The average person uses around 500 plastic bags each year.

Scientific studies show that plastic does not dissolve over time; it breaks into tiny pieces and stays there for 1,000-plus years. The amount of energy required to make 12 plastic bags could drive a car for a mile. It is time to find an alternative to plastic bags

The time has come for Auburn to ban plastic bags. More than 20 million people live in cities that now have bans on plastic bags. Chicago became the latest city to ban plastic bags on April 30, 2014. This includes the rich and poor in Seattle, Portland, Mexico City, San Francisco, Sydney Australia Delhi, India, all of Bangladesh. Single-use bags were invented in Sweden in 1962. The poor and rich found ways to carry things for over 7,000 years before then.

We are addicted to plastic bags. I can carry five things all over the store, and then use two plastic bags to get them to my car. Just for today, let’s all try to go without using a plastic or paper bag. Instead, buy a reusable bag that does not pollute our community.

If I can do it at Costco, we can do it in Auburn, and the results will be “More than you can imagine.”

– Nathan Pinard, Bess Owens