More reasons to ban the bag

In response to the July 10 letter, “Questions on the ban on plastic,” the toxic realities about plastic bags and, in general, much of the waste that the human race produces and inadequately recycles or disposes of, are many.

In the case of plastic bags used to bag groceries alone, more than 100 billion of these are used in the United States every year. Only 1 to 2% of them are recycled. A great deal of plastic waste winds up in our waterways and oceans, killing thousands of marine animals every year and polluting our oceans and beaches, and the food we get from those oceans.

To make these plastic bags, more than 3 million barrels of oil are used each year.

Why not try to reduce our negative impact on our planet in any way we can? Finding alternatives to plastic and paper bags will be one way.

Reusable cloth bags, if they get filthy, don’t have to stay filthy. Wash them when you do a regular load of laundry and, by all reasoning, they shouldn’t be bothersome to use.

If we as human beings feel that having to bring our own reusable bags to a supermarket is so negatively impacting our freedom and time, then I say we should turn in our Earth membership cards now, for there are truly many more pressing environmental problems that need our immediate attention that are much more complex in solving than bringing a reusable bag to a supermarket.

Dean Briggs
Glendale