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Many states, cities, & counties across the country are banning plastic bags in light of climate change, environmental justice, and litter control in their communities, should West Louisville do the same?
Economic Benefits
According to an article by cleanwateraction.org, banning plastic bags could easily lead to customers paying less at the register due to the fact they won't be paying to restock the bags like in most groceries.
Banning plastic bags could also do good for small businesses, who won't have to pay the burden of these plastic bags & can even make a hefty profit from selling reusable cloth or fabric bags.
Environmental Benefits
The average plastic bag has a life of 12 minutes from opening to trash, but they takes hundreds, (that's 13,148,719.2x as long as the bag's life), to decompose. That is, of course, if they wind up in a landfill which is the best senario. Many bags simply get blown away with the wind & wind up in parks, beaches, or literally anywhere the wind blows them.
Did you know the average human consumes an entire lego brick worth of plastic a week? This is according to a study done by Dalberg and the University of Newcastle in Australia from an article in plasticoceans.org. Where is that plastic coming from? Often from trash, (such as plastic grocery bags), being discarded of improperly and ending up in streams and rivers we drink from; where even the most complex filtration and sanitation systems can't remove the micro-plastics.
Why should West Louisville follow?
If it's still not obvious at this point, West Louisville & Louisville as a whole should simply ban plastic bags. Not only do they poison our environment and us, but they also cause disgusting litter, they're impossible to recycle, and according to nrckids.org, they result in 25 infant deaths a year due to suffocation. Let's act now, let's ban plastic bags in West Louisville.