Letter to the editor: Perry Gates

It’s not about the plastic

Wed, 10/17/2018 - 8:15pm
The world is awash in plastic. Already and literally. World wide plastic production tops out at  275,000,000 tons (that's 550,000,000,000 pounds) every year. So, what's another single use plastic
bag which weighs .0156 lb.going to matter? It's not really about the plastic. Especially if no one is watching...
 
It probably is about timely decisions. Substantive decisions. Just the way cars were originally designed without seat belts, the world was originally designed without plastic. Somewhere along the way common sense prevailed and it became the right time to install seat belts. But, not enough  people used them ... so we got together and made it the law. Throw away plastic is like cars without  seat belts; and like the cars we need the law to control our behavior.
 
Don't throw away your vote with your plastic bag. Make an affirmative statement, something that is progress. Vote to eliminate the single use plastic bags. And who knows, since young people are  the future and the future is progress, maybe they won't leave town either.
 
It's not about the plastic.        
 
Perry Gates lives in Camden