Ban the US sale of non-degradable plastic waste bags for mainstream waste. This means every kitchen trash bag will no longer be a single-use, resource heavy, polluting plastic bag. Every school and government and municipal building will use degradable trash bags. Hoorah to the ongoing effort to replace grocery store bags with reusable totes, now let's also stop polluting our oceans and soils and water ways with perpetual shreds of plastic we use to wrap our garbage.
Why is this important?
I believe we should regulate plastic trash bags --- no bags should be made, sold, distributed, etc that aren't degradable.
This includes mandating that municipalities, gov't buildings, military, schools, hospitals, households, private businesses, ---- all mainstream waste stream bags sold in the US MUST be made from biodegradable plastics. No more curbside stacks of bagged leaves sealed in plastic! Reduce the shreds of plastic in the oceanic gyres (http://5gyres.org/)! I propose the market offer degradable alternatives available to retail and wholesale consumers, and we ban the sale/trade of non-decomposing trash bags. There are many options for degradable bags; but we must eliminate the option to continue buying single-use plastic bags.
