Plastic Grocery Bags in Minneapolis
From:
Mark Snyder
Date:
Mar 17 15:31 UTC
Short link
Let's make sure we're not confusing issues here.
Bill's post refers to the use of plastic shopping bags like we see in grocery
stores, convenience stores and other retailers.
Tim talks about plastic bags for your trash. To clear up any confusion, it's
for your trash, not your recycling.
In the case of shopping bags, there are alternatives, such as paper or better
yet, reusable shopping bags made from cloth or more durable plastics, such as
nylon. I have not heard anything about efforts to ban these bags, but there is
a bill in the State Legislature that would require retailers to provide
opportunities to recycle them. My guess is this would amount to a ban for those
who don't want to deal with the recycling requirements, but that goes beyond
Minneapolis-specific, so I'm going to stop here.
As for the plastic bags being required for your trash, that's a worker safety
issue. Bagging your trash protects sanitation workers from things like broken
glass, used syringes, that bottle of unknown whatever you found while cleaning
out the garage, etc. Many of those items don't belong in your garbage in the
first place, but since many people are unaware of proper disposal for household
hazardous waste, the least we can do is not expose sanitation workers to that
stuff.
If you're not sure what to do with certain "unusual" items, you can often find
an answer by visiting http://www.greenguardian.com/
Mark Snyder
Windom Park
.