My first Letter to the Editor.

A big part of what I'm going to be doing here is writing letters to the editors of newspapers. Some big papers, some small papers, but the point of this is to get word out in the public about the importance of a ban on plastic bags. Each one needs to be right around 200 words long (which for anyone who knows me, being concise is not a strong suit of mine), and they are typically in response to an article which a paper previously published. My first one, however, was in response to a number of articles that I came across in researching opinions on plastic bags. Hopefully, people will read these, think I have some good points, and will come over to the light side of the plastic bag debate.

Check out my first one. =]

Every year, Americans use upwards of 1 billion plastic bags, making about 300,000 tons of landfill waste yearly. With our population quickly growing, land and resources are becoming more and more important. The truth about plastic bags is they are much more dangerous than we previously thought. What many consumers do not realize is that plastic bags will be here longer than any of us- in the water, they last 450 years and on land, a millennium.

If we do not change our usage of plastic bags, in ten years Americans will have used 10 billion plastic bags. At this rate, there would be 1 trillion bags in American landfills before even one finished degrading. The hazards of plastic bags go beyond the landfills though. A lot of litter in cities is strictly one time use plastic bags. These bags make their ways into our waterways, collecting toxins along the way, and are frequently eaten by marine animals, eventually winding their way up the food chain to us.

A ban on plastic bags is the only way to make sure the problems they cause are completely stopped. Massachusetts can only gain from a statewide ban which would make sure we will not suffer because of our need for convenience.