Beaufort County plastic bag ban is wrong trash solution
Has anyone else noticed the amount of trash around Beaufort County?
If you’ve traveled U.S. 21 recently from the Marine Corps Air Station to Whale Branch, Laurel Bay Road, S.C. 170 from Beaufort to Bluffton, and Pine Grove, there is so much garbage and litter it’s heartbreaking. After the mowers get done it’s even more heartbreaking.
I’m not looking to assign blame: we are all at fault. With Beaufort County’s population exploding, the problem will get worse. What must the military families who come for graduation every week think when they drive by miles of freshly mowed garbage?
What I would like to know is this: how many Beaufort County residents supporting the bag ban are part of an Adopt-A-Highway group?
I am against the ban. Yes, I love sea turtles. What I don’t love is being told how to live my life. These same groups demanded we not use paper grocery bags — that plastic would be better. Guess we know how that turned out.
Bag bans are pyrrhic victories. They solve nothing and raise the cost on businesses and taxpayers. People are quick to demand a ban, but are they putting their demands into action?
With so much trash polluting our county’s roadways and ending up in our waterways, maybe residents could join their local Adopt-A-Highway group. Instead of increasing consumer costs, an actual victory over the garbage would occur. I’m sure the sea turtles would appreciate that over a pyrrhic victory any day.
Laura Fanelli
Beaufort
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This story was originally published November 4, 2017 at 7:41 AM with the headline "Beaufort County plastic bag ban is wrong trash solution."