Cities
and counties across the country are instituting fees on plastic bags,
or even banning them outright, in an effort to prevent pollution and
raise revenue for cash-strapped local governments. Four cities in Oregon
– Eugene, Corvallis, Newport and Ashland – are considering banning
plastic bags at retail stores. The towns would join at least 10 other
U.S. cities and counties that have prohibited plastic bags since 2008.
“There is no reason a product we use for a few minutes should float in
our oceans for a few hundred years,” said Dave Mathews, a preservation
associate for Environment Oregon. The trend toward plastic bag bans is
not limited to the United States. China enacted a plastic bag ban in
2008, and since then the country has saved more than 1.6 million barrels
of oil and reduced plastic bag usage by 66%.
