The tropical island nation of Vanuatu banned plastic bags last year as well as some other plastics. Â More bans will take place in a few months. Â Their water ways and environment are noticeably cleaner now. Â The icing on the cake? Â Women are economically empowered making bags from the traditional art of weaving plants . Â The movement was driven by the people on the island who wanted to change things. Â
More and more cities around the world are banning plastic bags or at least charging for them. It appears single use plastics are next in the line of banning.  I have notice some changes in my local grocery stores.  A new line of yogurt comes in vey cute small glass jars and can easily be repurposed.  Also there are many beautiful bottles holding drinks, often kombucha.  I have been saving some brown and blue bottles to paint and reuse as art. I have also used some as candlestick holders.  Sprouts now sells clothe bags to use for bulk items and glass jars/bottles for olive oil, honey  and vinegar.  I can't wait to see some more zero waist shops go mainstream. Â
https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p07l0ftg/the-tiny-nation-waging-war-on-plastic
Our town banned plastic bags a few years ago. Â An local environmental group put the proposal forward and ran it through Town Meeting, of which I am a voting member. They did a great job with their campaign and drafting the bill, and were able to address every issue in spite of the grocery stores' opposition. Â Now because there are so many Massachusetts towns that have banned plastic bags, there is a plastic bag ban bill in the Massachusetts State Legislature. I hope it passes. Â
When one town passes a plastic bag ban, other towns follow. Â There is a domino effect so it is highly worth it just to get a ban passed in your town.
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That's great Jeanne - we banned one use bags in CA a couple of years ago. The problem is that the reuseable plastic bags that cost 10 cents are not recyclable and do not bio-degrade ... *sigh*
I am happy, though that we also banned plastic straws, which are worse and killing the oceans. there's paper and even bamboo. Many of us carry our own reuseable straws. They even make ones that work for milkshakes or boba.
Straws are next on our town's agenda. I saw people carrying metal straws around in Vermont last week when we were hiking.
I go around picking up the plastic straws every day. Â
It's the domino affect that makes every straw you pick up and every bag you prohibit worth while.
It's also the energetic domino affect that makes every vote you cast and every letter to the editor, every phone call to your congressperson worth while. It's all such a win-win.