Earthjustice Supports Plastic Bag Bill to Clean Anacostia River

Washington, DC — District of Columbia Councilmember Tommy Wells has proposed legislation in the district that would help to reduce the volume of paper and plastic grocery bags that enters the city’s Anacostia River. Earthjustice, an environmental law firm actively engaged in efforts to clean the Anacostia River, is pleased with Councilmember Wells’ proposal and supports initiatives by the council to help clean up the river.

“The Anacostia River is inundated with a stunning amount of trash pollution. Plastic bags — which disintegrate into small toxic bits that don’t biodegrade for 1,000 years — are a major culprit, and help to choke the life out of this river,” said Earthjustice attorney Jennifer Chavez. “District residents already pay for the consequences of plastic bags, through public dollars that fund trash removal and through the continued harm to their rivers. Other cities are moving to restrict or ban plastic bags, and it’s time the nation’s capital follows their lead.”

An estimated 20,000 tons of trash falls into the Anacostia River every year and plastic bags and other non-recyclable items comprise 85 percent of the trash, by some estimates. Plastic bags alone make up an estimated 40 percent of the entire volume of trash pulled out of the river.

Nearly two years ago, San Francisco became the first city in the nation to ban hard-to-recycle plastic bags. That move has reportedly translated to 5 million fewer bags used a month. Recently a 20-cent plastic bag fee went into effect in Seattle at grocery, drug and convenient stores and in New York City, Mayor Bloomberg introduced a fee on plastic bag usage. Elsewhere, Palo Alto, CA officials will be voting on a 25-cent fee on plastic bags next month and San Diego is working toward a plastic bag ban. Several other cities including Boston, Portland and Phoenix have considered banning plastic bags entirely or imposing a tax.

The District’s water quality standards require all D.C. rivers to free from floating trash, a mandate that is constantly violated due to the large volumes of plastic bags and other litter that typically litter the Anacostia’s surface. “By taking action to reduce the amount of plastic bags, the council could signal a stronger commitment to achieving real pollution reductions and helping to keeping our waters clean,” added Chavez. “Much more needs to be done to make the Anacostia and other D.C. waters fishable and swimmable, but adoption of this proposal would be an important step forward.”

Dalai Lama makes appeal not to use plastic

Dalai Lama stresses on environment protection
14 Jan 2009, 1925 hrs IST, TNN

VARANASI: Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama exhorted people to protect and conserve the environment for healthy life. He also suggested people to follow the spiritual ways for healthy living.

Addressing the gathering of devotees and Buddhist monks at the central institute of higher Tibetan studies (CIHTS), Sarnath, on Wednesday, the Dalai Lama expressed his concern over environment degeneration and said that the uncontrolled material development and exploitation of nature was causing tremendous harm to the environment, particularly the Himalayan environment. "If things remain the same, the ancients rivers will go dry in near future," he said and made an appeal not to use plastic.

Highlighting the importance of healthy living, the Dalai Lama said that people should give attention to their health. Despite the advances in medical sciences diseases like AIDS were posing threat to human life, he said adding that the self-awareness was essential for the protection of health and environment. Lord Buddha in Vinay Pittak had given special emphasis on protection of trees for environment conservation, he said.

Chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh Dorjee Khandu along with others prayed for the long life of the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama also released 14 new publications of CIHTS on the occasion.

Ocean Revolution Goes Plastic/Tree-Free in 2009

Read more HERE

Iowa City to consider sacking plastic bags

December 23, 2008

Chris Rhatigan
Iowa City Press-Citizen

Add Iowa City to the list of municipalities considering banning plastic grocery bags.

San Francisco banned plastic bags in 2007, and cities such as Seattle, Boston, Portland, Ore., Madison, Wis., and Phoenix have explored similar measures.

Now the Iowa City Council will discuss a bag ban after council member Connie Champion introduced the idea at a meeting earlier this month.

Champion stressed that she's not necessarily an advocate of a ban, but she thinks the idea should be considered.

"I don't know where I'm going to stand on it, but I think that it's worth discussing," she said.

Mayor Regenia Bailey said banning plastic bags is "not such an unusual idea. I think that the trend is catching on to a certain degree."

She said the non-biodegradable bags often become litter.

"(The bags) create an environmental hazard in our parks and in our waterways," she said.

read more HERE

Your Plastic Footprint

This may be a bad time to ask, being the holiday season and all, but what's your plastic footprint?

You know what I mean--the amount of disposable plastic stuff your lifestyle generates over the course of a day, a week, a year.

Plastic stuff that you may use for a few seconds or minutes. Then discard into the bin, sending it off into the world where it lasts essentially forever.

A small fraction gets recycled into low grade plastic things, but then lasts forever in that form.

Full disclosure: my plastic footprint is adult-sized. I bring my own bag, avoid drinks in plastic bottles, shun Styrofoam and generally work hard to shrink my plastic consumption.

But it's still amazes me what goes into the recycling bin. And the unrecyclable stuff bugs me even more.

Read more HERE