Reusable totes are a great alternative to plastic. | Photo Credit: www.modernest.comToday, take a stand and ditch your plastic bags in honor of Philadelphia’s “Bag the Bags” day—a campaign for a city-wide ban on those pesky plastic grocery bags.
The bill to outlaw plastic bags was first introduced in 2009, but denied. Chemical companies and bag-supporters argued that with mandatory recycling programs and a public education campaign, Philadelphia would be able to yield the same result.
With no follow through on the 2009 claim to minimize plastic bag pollution, Green Philly Blog has started a new petition. They hope to join other cities, like Washington, D.C., that have found success outlawing plastic bags. Green Philly Blog hopes to have 1,000 signatures by the end of the day.
Reducing the number of plastic bags used in the U.S. (currently upwards of 100 billion a year!), also provides a chance to support the local economy. Rather than outsourcing bag production overseas, bring home your next shopping spree in green, domestic bags like these from Modernest.com. Feeling extra crafty? Upcycle your own from an old t-shirt or pillowcase
For more information about Bag the Philadelphia Plastic Bag Day and to sign the petition, visit greenphillyblog.com
You make it sound so loving and good. But any ban is government sanctioned FORCE backed by threat of violence. Force of the law eventually comes from the end of a gun or the heavy hand of a tactical unit dressed in black and carrying assault weapons. Sure, it starts out with loving good intentions and the desire "to make others do what is good for them." If that doesn't work, the state sends a cease and desist letter, or a demand of a fine. When these are not responded to, eventually the armed steroid heads are called upon. If you want to give government the power of violence to force people to use recyclable bags, what else will you allow them to do in the name of 'goodness.' In California and elsewhere we have police tactical units showing up at organic food co-ops where raw milk is sold and arresting the "criminals" who sell the milk to willing customers. In Oregon this week a guy is spending 30 days in jail for collecting rainwater in a cistern, because the state says the rainwater is owned by the state. Recently a woman somewhere out west had a large vegetable garden in her front yard, and the city tore it up because it wasn't 'to code' to have such a garden. There are too many similar examples to list here of people trying to get off the grid and avoid the corporate-fascist control culture, and at every step government is making it more difficult because they want us servile to the sytem. A publication such as yours should be arguing for less government intrusion, not more. Lead by example, educated people about the bags or plastics but for the love of god don't add another law to the books.