Plastic Bags

A proposal in the Baltimore City Council to help clean up the environment by limiting the use of plastic bags in shops and stores is a perfect example of a law so compromised by the demands of competing special interests that it ends up accomplishing nothing. The plan endorsed Tuesday by a City Council panel started out honestly enough. Three years ago, the council began considering proposals to deal with the mounting problem of plastic and paper bag waste accumulating on city streets.

A proposal in the Baltimore City Council to help clean up the environment by limiting the use of plastic bags in shops and stores is a perfect example of a law so compromised by the demands of competing special interests that it ends up accomplishing nothing. The plan endorsed Tuesday by a City Council panel started out honestly enough. Three years ago, the council began considering proposals to deal with the mounting problem of plastic and paper bag waste accumulating on city streets.

After years of debating whether to ban disposable plastic store bags or slap a fee on them, the Baltimore City Council appears poised now to try fighting the city's litter problem with half a ban. Under a bill endorsed by a council committee Tuesday, food sellers would be given a choice of offering only paper bags or encouraging their customers to cut back on or recycle the plastic ones. James B. Kraft, chairman of the Judiciary and Legislative Investigations panel, said the measure should overcome objections store owners have to an outright bag ban or fee, which the panel had been considering since 2008.

Food stores and restaurants in Baltimore would be barred from giving away disposable plastic bags under a bill to be considered by City Council, unless the merchants join a program to encourage their customers to recycle or shop with reusable bags. Putting aside earlier proposals to ban disposable plastic bags outright or levy a 25-cent fee on them, the council's Judiciary and Legislative Investigations Committee approved, 3-0 with two members absent, what members have dubbed a "mandatory-voluntary" approach.

As a Baltimore City resident and environmental law student at the University of Maryland School of Law, I was pleased to see the attention brought to the Baltimore City Council's current efforts to curb waste from discarded plastic bags ("Besieged by Bags," Feb. 22). However, I do not agree with the criticism of the council's efforts without recognition of their ongoing dedication to this critical issue. Given the deliberation of two separate ordinances which would reduce plastic bag pollution (the 25-cent fee and a flat ban)

T he Baltimore City Council is again considering action to curb the mountain of plastic and paper bag waste accumulating on city streets. Most of this garbage ends up tangled in trees or clogging drainage grates, from whence it flows through the sewer system to pollute local rivers and streams. It's an eyesore and an environmental hazard the city just doesn't need. But it's a mystery why the council, which has been grappling with this issue since 2007, hasn't simply followed the lead of the successful effort to reduce plastic bag use in Washington.

B altimore City Councilman Nick D'Adamo figured Sheila Dixon could hang onto her office. We all know how things worked out for the ex-mayor. And D'Adamo? He wound up with a "whiffle cut." An old buddy of D'Adamo's from Archbishop Curley High School's Class of 1976 predicted that Dixon would be forced from office. D'Adamo insisted she'd finish her term. They decided to make it interesting. If Dixon hung on, Frank Weber , now of Orange County, Calif.

Plastic shopping bags snarl drainage grates, clog waterways and tangle up in trees, presenting an ecological and aesthetic challenge, environmentalists say. For three years, Baltimore City Council members have been trying to ban them or discourage their use, but those attempts seem almost as hard to manage as the bags themselves. On Tuesday, the council's legislative and investigative committee again took up the issue at a work session, discussing an outright ban or proposed fees.

Plastic grocery bags can be both good and bad. They are good for when you are on the go and have no reusable bags. Sometimes you unexpectedly have to go to the store for something you need. Plastic bags are also good for when you buy meats, fruits and dairy products. If you used reusable bags for everything you purchased at the grocery store, it would leak or damage your other products. On the other hand, plastic bags are not good for our environment. Plastic bags are one of the biggest trash items adding to the big mess on our streets and waters.