Banning plastic bags an easy step

My small town in New England had one primary grocery store that stopped using plastic bags about nine years ago. There were plenty who said their business would decline; it did not.

I was on the town civic beautification committee and we remarked within six months of the ban how much cleaner the town center and roads were as there were fewer plastic bags around.

I was in Colorado last year and Amsterdam this May. Neither has free bags for your use. You either buy them or bring your own. In Amsterdam, this includes all purchases from drug stores, department stores, food stores and the like.

I see the world my lovely little granddaughter will inherit and it’s fraught with trouble. I will gladly bring my own bags to the store or ask for paper to make one step of improvement.

Bluffton and Hilton Head, surely you can do the same.

By the way, there is money to be made when a store sells very cool bags like the $5 and $7 ones I bought in Europe. One is leopard, the other dogs and both fold to a 3-by-3-by-2-inch square. The merchants who are concerned about losing money can opt to sell these instead.

This story was originally published August 30, 2017 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Banning plastic bags an easy step."