I'm adding the Solid Waste Alaska Network to the statewide progressive web sites list. I'm doing research on a possible statewide ban on plastic shopping bags. I think it would be a very good idea.Here's a list of some of the communities that have banned them:
The Native Village of Tanana
The Chevak Traditional Council
The Native Village of Koyuk
Arctic Village Traditional Council
The Native Village of Newtok
The New Stuyahok Traditional Council
The Native Village of Fort Yukon
The Native Village of Chefornak
According to wikipedia, "Plastic shopping bags are banned in at least 30 villages and towns in Alaska, including the towns of Emmonak, Galena, and Kotlik." If you go to SWAN's page about banning these bags, there are examples of ordinances passed by communities.
I've put up a new poll on this issue.
1 comment:
Banning plastic shopping bags is a very good idea, to my mind, and is relatively easy to do. (And hear, hear, for India, which has banned them country-wide!) It's been very encouraging to go into Fred Meyer's and Safeway lately and see the cloth shopping bags for sale everywhere. Perhaps there's a mental shift beginning to develop back to the old way of bringing a basket or a cloth or net bag with you when you go shopping. However, the ban of plastic bags and the shift to cloth bags doesn't really solve the packaging problem--it's only ONE packaging problem. What Germany does is, I think, far more effective: German stores must accept packaging from goods purchased at their shop by their customers (or any customers), without charge. They have to take the packaging back. And German wholesalers must take back (without charge) packaging from items they've sold to retailers, or that retailers receive from their customers. And likewise, manufacturers must receive (without charge) packaging they receive from wholesalers, or retailers, or customers of any sort. In other words, the packaging chickens--and the attendant costs of recycling or disposal--must be allowed to come home to roost. This, naturally, has discouraged excess packaging.
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