Letter to the editor: Plastic bag ban will have an impact

Just finished reading the Spotlight PA article “Pittsburgh, Philadelphia move ahead with plastic bag bans as Pa.’s preemption nears its end”. I note Waste Management reports problems recycling bags and has requested newspapers not be placed into plastic bags when setting out recyclables for collecting, as the bags jam up the machinery used to shred the papers.

In the article, Pennsylvania Food Merchants Association president Alex Baloga says people expect to get a bag when they shop. I would like to point out that multiple food merchants do not provide that experience without a payment, including Trader Joe’s and Aldi. As a regular Aldi shopper, I find it no great inconvenience to provide my own bag.

I have seen plastic bags stuck in the trees seemingly forever. And the fracking sites grow to provide the raw material to make these bags. Plastic particles have been found at the summits of the highest mountains to the deepest parts of the world’s oceans.

While eliminating plastic bag usage will not alone solve the problem, it will have an impact, if only to make us think about what we are doing to Mother Earth. It has been said, we have no plan B.

Robert Thomas

Greensburg