HOPEFUL!

Change Is On the Horizon

• Worldwatch Institute reports that China’s ban on plastic bags has eliminated the use of 40 billion bags, reduced plastic bag usage by 66% and saved the country 1.6 million tons of petroleum.
• In June of 2009 the U.N. Environment Program chief called for a global ban on plastic bag production.
• Los Angeles will implement a ban in 2010 and Washington, DC recently approved a bag tax. Additionally, The New York Times (February 23, 2009) reported that “Momentum for imposing fees or bans has expanded from a few, often affluent, liberal cities on the West Coast—San Francisco was the first big city to ban plastic bags, in 2007—to dozens of legislative proposals in states like Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Texas and Virginia.”