by Morgan Wieziolowski

Widener University Political Science Major

In the cities of Portland, Eugene, and Corvallis, Oregon the distribution and use of plastic shopping bags are no longer legal. The city of West Linn, OR is moving on legislation to also ban these bags. Plastic bags are polluting the environment, collecting in the rivers and the Pacific ocean. These bags destroy ecosystems, water ways, habitats and also kills/injures animals. In some places in the Pacific, it even “out weighs plankton”, now that’s a pretty significant amount of plastic. Plastic bags are also difficult to recycle because even countries like China no longer accept these plastics to be recycled. It is actually an expensive process to recycle these bags and is much cheaper for companies, people, and the government to put them in landfills. Basically there is no easy way around the use and pollution of these plastic bags. Legislation that would ban the use of these bags would force companies and businesses using these bags for economical reasons to stop, and would prevent any financial burdens of anyone having to attempt to recycle them. The idea is to change our actions and choices, so that people use alternatives. Brilliant idea- who would have thought there were substantial alternatives to things like plastics, and even energies?!

http://www.environmentoregon.org/news/ore/hundreds-citizens-call-west-linn-city-council-ban-bag