On Monday, the city council voted 6-3 to overturn the plastic bag ban in stores, which reversed the mayor’s veto to save the clean and green ordinance. The city councils’ reason for this was because of the added cost to businesses that use plastic or paper bags.
What do neighbors think?
Debbie and Karen, who chose not to give their last names, said they both use reusable bags and that many people seem to even with the bag credit incentive of nickel and dime discounts.
“But ya know, how many people really care? What’s five cents really?” Debbie said.
“The few times I have left my bags at home, I wouldn’t mind being charged a few extra cents,” Karen said.
Rick said he hates to see the bags in trees and bushes everywhere. “It’s just gotten so out of hand, it really has, but I do prefer plastic to the paper, so I am pleased with that actually.”
Edwina said, “I don’t like the paper bags because that’s a tree dead, so I prefer the biodegradable bags because they can be recycled and reused, and they’re thicker. The only issue is they’re more expensive, but since they were already charging for bags anyways [it] doesn’t seem right to go back. I lived in California, and they have been charging for bags forever now.”
Angela said ,“They end up everywhere and they’re horrible, but I don’t like the paper because they’re killing a lot of trees. But then taking your own bags can be an issue cause we all forget, or a lot people don’t wash them and can get salmonella from not cleaning them, so it’s tough, but the bags shouldn’t have come back.”
Sissy said, “ I don’t think we should be using plastic, and we use paper bags and try not to use those too often.”
John said, “I don’t like the plastic bags at all. People have gotten used to the convenance and I get it, but they’re gonna do whatever the government lets them do, and they’ll abuse it if they can, so I think people should bring their own bags or use paper ones.”
Bradly said, “Obviously the idea of getting rid of single-use plastics is a good idea.”
Fran said, “Ideally we can find a much better way than using plastic, and the way we use it right now is destructive, but I don’t think using the thicker ones [works] because people continue to just throw them out, so in a sense that makes the problem worse because you end up with more plastic out there. I don’t really know what the solution is, but I think we need to be living in a closed-loop system so that plastic gets fully recycled in some way. We have community, social and personal habits that support that and I feel like a lot of people don’t follow that.”
