To the editor:
In an incredibly forward-looking policy, the nation of Kenya last fall enacted the most stringent law against plastic bags in the world. Kenya has joined 40 other countries, including China (2008), Rwanda (2008), Italy (2011), and France (2016), in making plastic bags illegal.
In this new Kenyan law, the penalties include imprisonment of up to four years or fines of $40,000 for producing, selling, or even using plastic bags.
Plastic bags are a worldwide scourge responsible for strangling, suffocating, and starving many types of sea life. Without curtailing their use, they will outnumber fish in the planet’s oceans by the year 2050. These plastic bags also degrade into microplastics that endanger the human food supply, as seafood is the primary source of protein for nearly one-fifth of the human population.
Please, please stop bringing your groceries home in plastic bags. I stopped using plastic grocery bags more than 20 years ago, and I can testify that there is no truth in claims about contamination of your food, as long as you throw your reusable grocery bags in the laundry periodically.
It seems to me that if Kenya, a small developing nation, can outlaw plastic bags, so can the towns of Lincoln County. Contact your selectmen and ask them to do the same. The Earth, and especially our oceans, will thank you for it!
Lynne Gilbert
Bristol
