Immediately after the start of the year, plastic bags were banned in Montgomery County. The ban became public knowledge on December 18, when the Montgomery County government announced the “Bring Your Own Bag” law on its website. The law states that stores can no longer provide plastic bags and that people should bring their own non-plastic bags from home. Of course, if people need to get bags, they can get them from stores, but these will be paper bags instead of plastic ones and will cost 10 cents. There are some cases where plastic bags are allowed for use, which include carrying prescription medicine, fruits, vegetables, perishable food, and dry-cleaned clothes.
The goal of the law is to assist with environmental causes, such as preventing plastic bags from polluting public spaces such as parks and waterways, in the county. Plastic bags account for a lot of litter and, besides making places appear less appealing, can also harm animals, who sometimes mistake them for food or become entangled in them. Paper bags that are littered or that end up in a landfill decompose significantly faster than plastic bags, which means they will be removed or die out faster.
Mrs. Miller, the sponsor of PB’s Environmental Club, says her immediate reaction to the plastic bag ban is that she’s excited that the county is moving forward in terms of supporting the environment and thinks the law is a step in the right direction. However, she believes that it could cause logistical issues in stores, and it will take some time to transition.
When asked about whether or not the county is making enough progress on protecting the environment based on the passing of this law, senior Safiyah Alam, who is a member of the Environmental Club, believes they are because she thinks that they’re doing way more to protect the environment than other places. “I used to live in Atlanta, and nobody is even talking about this kind of stuff. I think half of the time in some neighborhoods at least, they wouldn’t even care which is the recycling bin and which is the trash bin, and it would just all go to landfills.”
