http://www.providencejournal.com/opinion/content/20140209-kate-weymouth-banning-plastic-bags-is-essential.ece

Kate Weymouth: Banning plastic bags is essential
February 09, 2014 05:33 PM

It was interesting to read Elaine Gambardella’s earnest but misinformed
response (“Punishing the public,” letter, Feb. 4) to Rep. Maria
Cimini’s
introduction of a state-wide plastic bag ban.

While I applaud her “faithful” recycling efforts, the fact is that, on
average, only 11 percent of a year’s worth of produced plastic bags is
recycled, and half of those are sent to China where they are recycled in
highly toxic processes.

Also important to note, that while her creative phrase “reuse, recycle,
and restore” conveniently supports her opinion, it is misquoted. The
three R’s of waste management and minimization (and the motto for those
of us who do place the future health of our planet as a “first”) are
actually “reduce, reuse, recycle.” Rep. Maria Cimini’s bill addresses
the first, and what is universally accepted as the most effective piece
of the waste management hierarchy.