One of the most important things a citizen can do besides voting, is to write their legislator, and let them know their thoughts on issues of the days. I recently wrote my county legislator, Vicky Plottsky about the proposed bag ban that is likely to be taken up in the next few week sin the county legislature.

Dear Ms. Victoria Plotsky:

I am writing you to urge you to vote no on the proposed Albany County Local Law “D”, The Eliminate Single-Use Plastic Bag Use in Albany County Act”.

I believe this law is not only unnecessary, it’s misleading in it’s purpose and bad public policy. This law would not only ban plastic bags, but also charge a new tax on environmentally-superior paper bags.

Plastic bags are convenient for consumers like myself, but generate minimal waste compared most other packaging consumer goods come in today. Moreover, all big-box retailers in the state of New York are required to take back plastic bags from consumers. Even when plastic bags aren’t recycled, they have a wide variety of uses in their reuse — like boot liners, keeping one’s lunch from leaking onto their backpack, or even trash can liners.

That said, I have no objection with banning plastic bags in favor of paper bags. Indeed, this is a public policy that should be explored further by county government. An increase in the use of paper bags would have significant environmental benefits.

The use of paper bags support local farms and forest owners. They will encourage more people to plant timber species, helping to sequester carbon dioxide out of the air and reduce climate change. Paper bags can be conveniently recycled with most mixed-paper recycling programs, and used for composting.

Paper bags rot relatively quickly, they provide few of the litter concerns that plastics cause. They are non-toxic. They don’t block up waterways, they don’t get stuck in trees. The environmental benefits to paper bags are only positive — they should be encouraged, not discouraged.

Taxing paper bags is a new tax on local families. Rather then taxing them, we should be promoting them — so we can have healthy forests that provide habitat for wildlife, recreation for citizens, and increased for the opportunities for the public to hunt and trap. Managed forests are healthier, have larger wildlife populations and increase carbon sequestration. A healthy pulp and paper industry, creates jobs and is good for our region’s economy.

Therefore, I believe you should vote no on the proposed Local Law “D”.

Sincerely,

Andy Arthur