Yesterday, a new law took effect in DC that requires consumers to pay a five cent fee for plastic shopping bags making it one of the toughest environmental measures in the country.
It’s a dam good one too in my opinion.
According to this article by Annie Gowan in The Washington Post today, “Americans use billions of plastic sacks every year, and only a fraction are recycled.”
“The D.C. Department of the Environment found in a recent study that 47 percent of the trash in the Anacostia's tributaries and 21 percent in the river itself is plastic bags.”
Anyone who has ever spent time cleaning up stream beds know that this true. When Jean-Michel Cousteau spoke in Baltimore back in October he singled out plastic shopping bags as one the more egregious environmental hazards that could easily be addressed by getting consumers into the habit of taking their own reusable bags to the stores.
Gowan reports that similar legislation is will be introduced during Maryland’s General Assembly session this year.
I’d much rather see our legislators putting their energies into this type of initiative rather than those that pander to the license beverage association and limit consumer choice.
The Seen and the Unseen: Columbia in the News
13 hours ago
