Last July, the Bellingham City Council had the good judgment to approve an ordinance that bans almost all plastic grocery bags in the city. Now it is time to apply this law statewide.
A state Senate bill that would ban plastic bags throughout Washington is on the table to be set into motion.
This editorial board is in full support.
Four cities in Washington have already developed a plastic bag ban. Expanding the ban statewide would eliminate the small differences between city ordinances that make the bill complicated for statewide distributors.
Currently plastic bags account for more than 10 percent of debris washed up on U.S. coastlines. Of the 30.7 million tons of plastic generated in 2007, less than 7 percent was recycled, according to the National Marine Debris Monitoring Program.
It is time to address the problem of plastic waste. Countries ranging from Italy to Burma and Rwanda have already banned or restricted single-use plastic bags without any major backlash, according to 4US2BE, a website dedicated to reporting on environmental issues.
Alternatives to single-use plastic bags could become rule of Washington, such as reusable bags, compostable bags or no bags.
Although the details of the ban have not been worked out at the state level, in Seattle and Bellingham the ordinance offers a 5-cent purchase of paper bags that does not apply to people with low-incomes.
Living without plastic bags is not an inconvenience — it is a necessity to live sustainably. Please encourage the Washington state legislature to pass this ordinance that would improve quality of life for our environment and our future generations.
We must choose not to pay the price later for our obsession with convenience now.
We encourage students and community members to email or call your state and local community representatives to turn this bill into a law with wide support from all over Washington.
There is no more room for single-use plastic grocery bags in our dumps, oceans, and forests; it is time to make a change.
Our state would become the first in the country to ban plastic bags entirely. Let’s set the example for the rest of the country.
The editorial board is comprised of Editor-in-Chief Paige Collins, Managing Editor Marissa Abruzzini and Opinion Editor Sarah Aitchison.
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