Here’s why I am happy to refuse plastic bags and straws:
I know that I am not responsible for the beached whale that died with its stomach full of plastic trash.
I know that the pain of the sea turtle with a plastic straw caught in its nose was not my fault.
I know that I did not support an industry whose radioactive frack water ends up deicing and contaminating our roads.
I know that I am not increasing the demand for plastics that is spurring the development of yet another plant in Pennsylvania that turns fracked natural gas into the nurdles that this plastic trash is made of.
I know that I am not increasing the number of missed school days of poor children affected by asthma in places where the air is polluted by plastic trash burned to make (expensive) “energy from waste.”
I know that I need to be thankful that I live in a county where our leaders are showing the political will to reduce plastic trash and set an example for other communities in the commonwealth to follow.
Please join me and JUST SAY NO to plastic bags and straws — and let’s make sure we’re leaving our children and grandchildren a world they can live in safely.
Joan Bouchard
State College