Westport Connecticut Says NO to Plastic Bag Usage

Westport, Connecticut is making a stand against wasteful usage of plastic bags. Some areas of the town are placing a ban on the utilization of plastic bags due to their short life span in the hands of the consumer and their long life span in area landfills.

The bags at the heart of the new regulations are those used in stores across the town. In six months, Westport will enforce the ban on checkout bags but will allow the use of other forms of plastic bags, like those used for the dry cleaning industry.

Westport was part of a statewide ban on plastic bags, similar to the ones passed in both Maine and Massachusetts, but later reversed the state wide ban (as did the other states). Environmental advocates are unsure how large scale the effects of the local bans will be.

More than 100 billion plastic bags are used in the retail sector across the globe every year. These bags are often used just one time and then thrown away with other household trash. Once the trash hits the landfills, the bags will remain there forever. The ingredients in plastic bags used in the retail sector are not biodegradable and thus will not break down over time. Currently, only 5% of the plastic bags used by consumers are recycled.

Other countries are using tactics to reduce the use of plastic bags by consumers. In Ireland, for instance, a tax was imposed on plastic bags and when consumers were forced to pay for their usage, the overall consumption of plastic bags dropped by 90%. Ireland used the monies collected from the tax to help environmental causes.

The future of our environment is held in the hands of the consumer. The less plastic bags used, the less waste collecting in the landfills and the better our environment will become.

For further reading and more information on the ban against plastic bags, be sure to check out the following resources that are below:

http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/38294

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/opinion/30tue4.html?_r=1&oref=slogin