Bainbridge Island Council member Kirsten Hytopoulos will soon propose an island-wide ban on single-use plastic bags. The ban has the full support of our local grocery store, Town & Country, which has had a bring-your-own-bag incentive program for several years. Plastic bags blow from hands, garbage cans, and dumps. They end up in our ditches, beaches, forests and waterways. Many make it to the Pacific Ocean, caught by ocean currents in a giant collection of plastic known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, twice the size of Texas. Plastic doesn’t decompose but instead breaks up into ever smaller polymers. Birds, mammals and sea creatures eat it, get tangled in it, suffer and die from it. Or they don’t die, but instead land on our dinner plates, and WE eat the plastic. Bon appetit!
As reports on the proposal have surfaced, the emails are flying. Just this morning I learned from an email listerv that plastic bags are actually a symbol of freedom and a handy way to clean up after your dog. The Hytopoulos plan is another example of Big Brother interfering with our happiness and Freedom of Choice (that’s a quote, boldface included). Plus it’s a waste of time to make any laws about responsible choices we can make for ourselves (inconvenient fact: we don’t. See e.g. the Great Pacific Garbage Patch). Also, in a shocking development, readers of the Kitsap Sun, most of whom hate Bainbridge Island and don’t live here, are voting against the ban in a highly scientific online poll. That does it. Hytopoulos, forget it.
But wait. Let’s take a look at this happy plastics lifestyle. Don’t bother with the Sun’s poll. Let your Council member know what you think.
For the past two years I’ve been picking up and cataloging plastic waste on our own local beaches – It’s tempting to think the Pacific gyre is the heart of our plastic pollution problem, but it’s not. Our watersheds and beaches right here, under our own noses, are covered with our plastic debris. Anything we can do to reduce this will have an immediate positive impact on our local environment and food webs – Plastic bags are just one item; there are many others we can easily move away from!
It seems clear that plastic bags are a minor, but real, factor in the plague of garbage and plastic waste. We can’t outlaw fishing lines, nets, plastic bottles (a huge culprit), and other nasties, but we can make a small difference with plastic bags, and our own choices. Thanks Rebecca for doing some serious cleanup!