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Description
Each year, Americans use more than 100 billion plastic shopping bags, consuming an estimated 12 million barrels of oil. After a very short working life, these bags retire to landfills where they take 500 or more years to break down, or become litter that clogs storm drains and threatens marine wildlife. City governments that have passed or are considering plastic bag bans include Steamboat Springs, Colorado, Portland, Oregon, California cities San Francisco, Oakland and Santa Monica, Boston, and both Annapolis and Baltimore in Maryland. Consumers in these cities must use paper or bring their own bags.
Sam Shropshire, a Democratic city council member in Annapolis, says that many city residents moved to the city to be close to Chesapeake Bay, which is being damaged by the 95 percent of plastic checkout bags that end up in landfills or the environment. "We... |
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