City Considering Banning Plastic Bags From Stores

EL PASO, TX – City officials are considering banning grocery and department stores from using plastic bags to bag products bought by customers.

According to national figures, Americans use nearly 100-billion plastic bags each year. Only two percent of those bags are recycled and most end up polluting cities or in landfills, where they fail to decompose.

“I’m really tired of driving around El Paso and seeing what I call our city’s flag: a plastic bag flying off the top of an ocotillo cactus,” said Katherine Palafox, who is heading the new “Keep El Paso Beautiful” campaign. “I see this as the next step in doing what is right for our environment.”

Other alternatives under consideration is to allow stores to provide bags made of different materials at the cost of 15 cents to the consumer or to allow customers to bring their own reusable bags into stores.

The alternatives have been met with mixed reaction by El Pasoans. “I would be in favor of banning plastic bags or bringing our own to stores,” said one area resident. “No, I wouldn’t … the way groceries cost now and then you gotta pay for bags or bring your own … I think they should just keep the plastic,” said another resident who thinks banning plastic bags is not a good idea.

Nationally, San Francisco was the first major city to ban plastic bags at all stores. Cities such as Philadelphia and Austin are considering placing their own bans into effect.

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Written and reported for broadcast by Darren Hunt

Written for the web by Joe Villasana