To the editor:

While appreciating the desire to protect our environment and reduce litter, outlawing store provided plastic bags in Madison County is not the most productive way to accomplish this.

My wife and I appreciate plastic bags and use them responsibly. We use plastic bags to line trash cans, wrap foods and store everything from paintbrushes to Christmas ornaments. Pet owners pick up their dog droppings with plastic bags. Young parents wrap soiled infant diapers in them. Swimmers put their wet bathing suits and towels in plastic bags.

Cazenovia is not a community that faces massive littering problems or endangers birds, turtles or fish due to plastic bag use. Anyone who has traveled to a third world country has encountered trash lined streets and beaches. It’s terrible. The absence of sanitary trash pick-up and disposal or failure to use it is the problem. Banning plastic bags here won’t solve that.

Lastly, if people prefer plastic bags and merchants in our area are prevented from offering them, shoppers may go elsewhere to make their purchases where they can take home their goods in plastic bags. This could hurt Madison County merchants. A choice of “paper or plastic” makes more sense.  Let people decide.  Outlawing plastic bags in one area has many drawbacks and won’t accomplish much for the environment.  Eventually, plant based, biodegradable “plastic” bags will replace many of the petroleum based ones we use now. That will be great for everyone who appreciates the convenience of plastic bags while truly reducing environmental impact.

Kevin Curtis

Cazenovia