This week Atlanta City Council members voted unanimously to stop the use of single-use plastic items including straws, plastic bags and polystyrene products like Styrofoam, packaging materials and food containers. Jennette Gayer is the director of Environment Georgia. She would like to see other cities follow suit.
“Even one entity making a very deliberate decision to stop using bags sends market signals, hopefully spread that success to other places,” according to Gayer. “I think that can make an impact. So this is a first step, it can’t the last step, maybe Athens will be next, but it’s a very important step.”
According to Environment Georgia, Americans throw away an estimated 300 million single-use plastic bags. Less than five percent of those bags are recycled.
“All plastics break down into smaller and smaller pieces until we have micro plastic in our air, in our water, in our bodies.”
Gayer says there are examples to follow.
“The entire state of Maine for example, comes to mind. They’ve banned Styrofoam statewide. That puts our very local, only at the city level in government buildings, progress in prospective and gives us something I think, to build toward.”
She says the ban applies to all city buildings, including the concourses and terminals at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
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