It’s challenging times nationally, and it’s a shame that locally we have to divert our attention from larger issues. In 2011, more than 800 people in Durango signed a petition to ban single-use bags. This year, 344 people signed a petition to bring the bag fee to a vote, opposing city councilors who approved, 4 to 1, a compromise that large retailers would be required to charge a fee for bags. The upside is our democratic system works. The downside is a minority is diverting our efforts and dollars for an issue that hundreds of intelligent cities in the United States, Europe, Mexico, Asia and India have instituted. Europeans can’t fathom why this is an issue in the United States because using their own bags is second nature to them.
It’s a fee and only if you decide to use a single-use bag. No choice has been eliminated, and you don’t have to be inconvenienced at only three locations that will be affected by the ordinance. The Herald’s Oct. 14 editorial misses the point and is incorrect. This is not a ban. A ban means that something is not allowed, illegal. The editor suggests, “Shutting down the Four Corners power plant, for example, would have a real and demonstrable effect on public health and quality of life across the region,” This is laughable. Small steps and raising the consciousness, whether it’s making recycling part of our culture, or cleaning up a local river are tangible, attainable goals.
We have become a “disposable” society and our single-use mentality is clogging landfills, stream and oceans. Do you know where your used plastic bags that you “recycle” at the large retailers en up? They don’t end up at our local recycle center because they’re not recyclable in Durango. They are transported (more petroleum) and disposed somewhere “else.” There is no more “away.” If we want a healthy, clean future for our children, reducing waste and single-use items that we so readily throw “away” is a step in the right direction.
Laurie Dickson
Durango
