To the Editor:
It was disappointing but not surprising to read that the Edwardsville city council finally will put into effect a previously approved ordinance requiring large retailers to charge a 10-cent fee for each single-use shopping bags provided at checkout. To channel Vice President Kamala Harris, this action will focus on eliminating a “root cause” of the litter that plagues our roadways.
No losers here. City government took a largely “no harm, no foul” approach when approving this initiative while the grassroots group that sponsored it came away feeling good about themselves. No sweat equity required here, as compared to organizing teams to just go out and pick up trash. Retailers will be left to figure out how to spend all those unearned dimes.
Meanwhile very little may actually change. Large retailers will have to collect and account for all those extra dimes. Many customers will likely just chalk it up as just another cost for the shopping experience and move on.
As a long-time plogger on the street and country road near my residence, I know a thing or two about litter. For those not familiar, plogging is essentially running, with the additional challenge of picking up any garbage found along the way. Armed with two of the offending single-use plastic bags I’m out there most every morning chugging along, cleaning up Illinois as I go.
From firsthand observation, plastic bags are by far not the biggest offender. Like Santa’s elf I routinely stuff my bags with beer cans and bottles, cigarette packs, big gulp cups, and fast-food wrappings and containers. There’s a common thread here and it doesn’t lead back to a grocery store checkout.
Don’t forget to grab your bags!
Bill Malec, O’Fallon