Mexico City bans plastic bags. Is Lafayette next?

August 23, 2009 · Posted in Environment · 1 Comment 
Nadine Shade places her groceries in reusable bags Wednesday at Vitamin Cottage in Lafayette. The store has stopped offering plastic and paper bags at checkout. Customers either bring their own bags or reuse store boxes. Photo by Mara Auster

Nadine Shade places her groceries in reusable bags at Vitamin Cottage in Lafayette. The store has stopped offering plastic and paper bags at checkout. Customers either bring their own bags or reuse store boxes. Photo by Mara Auster

Last week, a new law that bans plastic bags went into effect in Mexico City. This puts Mexico City in the company of San Francisco, New Delhi, the entire country of China  and, if the Waste Reduction Advisory Committee gets its way, Lafayette, Colo.

The committee pitched its idea to the Lafayette City Council earlier this month:

“Our main goal is awareness about how bad plastic bags are,” said Shelly Colwell, the committee’s co-chairwoman. “More and more people are bringing their own bags.”

The bags can take more than 1,000 years to break down in a landfill, she said. They’re also tough to recycle — only an estimated 5 percent of Americans recycle them, and they can’t go into a homeowner’s recycling bin.

Read more about the committee’s efforts at DailyCamera.com or read more about Mexico City’s ban — and why people there are probably still using plenty of disposable plastic bags — at the New York Times blog Green Inc.

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