Aug 26 - Thurston County Considers Bag Ban
Thurston County, WA, where single-use plastic bags are no longer being accepted for recycling, is now considering adopting an ordinance restricting plastic and charging for paper bags.
LeMay, the recycling facility in the county, recently announced it would no longer accept plastic bags from commercial customers beginning Oct. 1, and the landfill is no longer accepting plastic bags from the public. According to a spokesperson there is no market for the plastic.
The Supervisors will consider the ordinance, which would cover the unincorporated areas of the county, in September.
Even before the market changed, recycling, which currently stands at about 3 percent, wasn’t making a dent in the huge (13 billion in California alone) number of single-use plastic bags being produced each year. At a cost of over $100 million in clean-up costs, these lightweight, aerodynamic bags place too heavy a burden on the economy and environment when they are littered or picked up by the wind.
Here in California, local governments are taking action to reduce single-use plastic bag pollution at the source by adopting ordinances restricting their distribution. Find out if your community is on the list here.