Trash in our Watershed

Litter in our streams has become an eyesore and hazard to the living things inhabiting our watershed. One of the main culprits is plastic bags.

Plastic bags are a growing environmental hazard. They require valuable resources, such as oil, and kill many sea animals when littered. In the community, they fill up landfills and are blight in streets, walkways, gutters, streams, etc.

Did you know?:

• The average individual uses around 130 plastic bags per year
• The petroleum in 14 plastic bags could drive a car a mile
• 0.6 percent of plastic bags are recycled in the U.S.
• It takes from 500 to 1,000 years for a plastic bag to biodegrade
• An estimated 100,000 birds, marine mammals, whales, and sea turtles die from plastic bags every year

Plastic bags are not only a problem in our watershed. Other countries, states, and even some large retail stores have already taken action to limit the use of plastic bags.

• Wholefood supermarkets plan on enacting their ban on plastic bags on Earth day
• China just banned plastic bags in January of 2008
• San Francisco became the first city in the U.S. to ban plastic checkout bags in March of 2007
• In 2002, Ireland imposed a 15 euro Plastax or surcharge on plastic bags provided by stores and shops. It is estimated that this has reduced the use of plastic bags by 90 percent
• Taiwan is prohibiting not only plastic bags, but also disposable plastic plates, cups and cutlery used by fast food vendors. It is estimated to have resulted in a 70% reduction in the use of plastic bags, and a 25% cut in landfill waste

Your efforts to reduce you plastic bag consumption will directly help improve the environmental quality of your stream and the Bay:

• Use cloth or recycled paper bags
• Reuse plastic bags when you go to the grocery store
• Ask clerks not to unnecessarily bag items
• Take bags back to store for recycling
• Try to reduce the amount of bags you use by just one a month. If everybody did this, it would reduce the total amount of bags used drastically.

Plastic bags have not been on the scene too long and already they pose a huge environmental threat. We all need to do our part to protect and clean our watershed.

• Hear what Annapolis Alderman Sam Shropshire has to say, http://www.aldermansam.com/legis-plastic.htm
• And find out how the World Watch Institute feels, http://www.worldwatch.org/node/1499
• Learn about Baltimore city's new plan for recycling as well as Baltimore county's, http://www.cleanergreenerbaltimore.org, http://www.baltimorecountymd.gov/Agencies/publicworks/recycling/index.html