Massachusetts' Town Rejects Plastic Bag Ban

The town of Plymouth, Mass., has rebuffed a bid to ban plastic bags and instead opted to expand recycling, following in the footsteps of neighboring New York and Rhode Island, according to a press release.

Plymouth joins the rising trend of communities across the country, including Chicago, Tucson and New York City, that are taking advantage of a rapidly growing recycling infrastructure for plastic grocery bags, dry cleaning bags, bread bags and even the plastic bags used to deliver newspapers.

After local business owners cited the environmental advantages of plastic over paper bags and expressed commitment to increase recycling, the proposed ban was dropped. Town officials instead will educate citizens about reusing and recycling plastic bags, according to the press release.

Commenting on the outcome of the town’s debate, Plymouth’s Director of Health Susan Merrifield says that she’s happy with the way everything turned out. “We, as a community, need to look at recycling,” she says.

“Plastic is too valuable to waste, it should be recycled,” says Shari Jackson of the Progressive Bag Affiliates, part of the American Chemistry Council. “Today’s plastic bags can be tomorrow’s durable decking, fencing, railings, shopping carts or new bags.”

Although the recycling of plastic bags and wraps grew 24 percent in 2006, there are still opportunities to do even better, the press release says. Jackson encourages shoppers to look for the recycling bin in front of grocery stores or near the checkout counters and bring back clean plastic grocery bags, retail bags, newspaper bags, dry cleaning bags and wraps from bread, paper towels, bathroom paper and such.

More information is available at www.plasticbagrecycling.org.