Ocean Sentry
(From dailybreeze.com) There are many reasons to steer public policy in the direction of reducing plastic bags.
For one thing, due to technical and other reasons, the recycling rate for them is dismal, about 5 percent. Such lightweight plastics tend to clog storm drains and add to beach pollution. And when the bags end up in the oceans, their effect on marine mammals is particularly disturbing. The National Marine Mammal Laboratory concluded as early as the 1970s that incidences of “plastic entanglement” were killing 40,000 seals annually.
It’s likely that cities that ban the bags will also call on merchants to charge a fee for paper bags. This will encourage consumers to have a supply of reusable bags on hand when they go shopping. That scenario makes the most sense environmentally.
Most people will likely adapt quickly to the new paradigm. It’s a small shift in behavior, and we suspect that a year or two from now people will wonder what all the fuss was about and why they didn’t make the change sooner.
