As our planet’s population surpasses 7 billion people, it’s ever more important to review and revise our daily habits to protect our finite and dwindling natural resources. That’s why I heartily support the local efforts to ban plastic shopping bags in the city of Durango.

Nearly 20 years ago, our county landfill got full, and we had to negotiate with Aztec to transport all our trash down to its landfill. Naturally, Aztec residents were concerned that their landfill would fill up more quickly, then both counties would need to search for yet another landfill site. Durango’s recycling program only partially allayed their concerns, but plastic bags cannot be recycled using current technology.

The bagitmovie.com website has some good information about the real cost of these “free” plastic shopping bags: annually, the United States uses 12 million barrels of oil to produce them, we discard 8 billion pounds of them and they take up to 1,000 years to degrade. In the meantime, animals ingest these plastic bags, which can choke them or block their intestines, leading to an agonizing death.

While the statistics can seem overwhelming, this problem is relatively easy to solve.

Simply bring your own cloth bags to the store and use paper bags for your garbage.

Durango is a special place because of our beautiful natural scenery and wildlife. Please join us in protecting the qualities that brought us here.

Carolyn A. Hunter

Durango