The modern world has a plastic problem and something needs to happen -- now. Last year, cities in northern Utah were pushing for a plastic bag ban, but that was before the pandemic altered our priorities. The last time The Salt Lake Tribune mentioned a Utah plastic bag ban was May 26, 2020. It is now March 2021 and plastic pollution isn’t even on the radar.
Plastic bag prohibition would be one easy and small step towards curbing plastic pollution in Utah. While plastic waste is generally an eyesore, the issue is beginning to extend beyond what the eye can see. The polyethylene bag you grab at the grocery store and other plastic products break down into tiny pieces called microplastics.
A team of Utah State University scientists led by Dr. Janice Brahney estimates that over 1000 tons of microplastics are deposited in our remote wilderness areas each year. Microplastics are in our water, food and in the air we breathe.You eat about a credit card’s worth of microplastics each week. The longer we wait to act against single-use plastics, the more of an issue this becomes.
Tackling the plastic problem has to start somewhere. Europe and Canada are on track to ban single-use plastic items by the end of 2021. The United States has no such plan in place. Utah can become the standard and set an example our country desperately needs.
I urge Utahns not to wait for a ban on single-use plastic grocery bags to cut them out of your routine. You can help to save the world and preserve the outdoors that we all know and love by finding a plastic alternative today.
Macy Gustavus, Logan
