Philadelphia recently released a study showing its plastic bag ban has been successful at tackling plastic pollution throughout the city and its suburbs. From October 2021 to August 2022, the amount of plastic bags being used decreased by 94%. So far, the ban has prevented the use of over 200 million plastic bags, many of which would have polluted our environment through littering, ended up in the ocean or filled our landfills with unnecessary waste.

Thankfully, Pittsburgh has passed a similar law, with a plastic bag ban set to go into effect in October. This has the potential to significantly decrease the amount of plastic being used throughout the city, eliminating about 108 million plastic bags a year in Pittsburgh.

We know how effective these plastic bag bans can be at reducing plastic pollution. It’s time for other local communities to implement bans on single-use plastic as well. As each city, town and borough throughout Pennsylvania, and the country, takes action, we get one step closer to cleaning up our environment.

Sophie Davis

Havertown

The writer is an intern with PennEnvironment.

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