Eco-friendly reusable shopping bags may become the norm in at least one New England town. While city councils across the country look to ban plastic bags, one Massachusetts resident is not waiting for his town’s officials to act. Greenfield, Massachusetts, resident Garrett Connelly has mounted a campaign on his own to stop the use of plastic bags. Connelly recently submitted an ordinance to the Town Council and he followed up by collecting signatures to back up the proposal.
Connelly told WWLP News of Massachusetts that he was concerned about the environment and the world his young son will inhabit. It’s a refrain that so many people across the United States repeat as we survey a polluted landscape with inadequate public policy solutions. Plastic bags are choking marine wildlife, polluting our lands and seas, creating expensive financial problems, and wasting retailers’ money. Eco-friendly reusable shopping bags could easily replace single-use, wasteful bags overnight.
What is stopping the movement toward an outright plastic bag ban? It won’t come as a surprise that plastic bag manufacturers and their lobbyists usually end up driving the opposition. Any time a ban is proposed, dubious facts enter the media through blogs and attack ads on legislation. At this point, most Americans are tired of games being played by corporate interests. Plastic bags are unnecessary and can be easily replaced by eco-friendly reusable shopping bags.
Storeowners have taken to ordering wholesale reusable bags to shift customers’ reliance away from plastic. In almost every case, the strategy works. An owner of a grocery store or other retail establishment can even add their company name and logo to their reusable bags in order to promote the cause while advertising a business. There’s no more time to waste when it comes to our precious oceans and landscape. It’s time to listen to the people and ban plastic bags nationwide. For more information about reusable shopping bags, visit
www.holdenbags.com.
