To the editor:
Recognition is due to the Cazenovia Republican for the Aug. 2 issue’s front page article and editorial on the plastic shopping bag debate among business interests and environmental concerns. Both sides have legitimate apprehensions and it’s important to allow their full expression before Madison County makes a decision. As significant as the issue is in our communities, however, it’s the larger context that must also be kept in mind.
Coining the phrase, “Think globally, but act locally” has been often attributed to Rene Dubos about 50 years ago. It urges people to consider the environmental health of the entire planet and to take action in the very places where they live. Most plastic bags in Madison County are disposed of in landfills, where they will, in all probability, remain for a very, very long time. So, on a local level, it’s pretty easy to wonder if a ban would be worth the cost to business or the consumer.
On the larger scale, however, the prevalence of plastic packaging of all sorts and its increasing rate of use verges on a scourge. Disposal is generally a simple matter of convenience and recycling, however well intentioned, accounts for a relatively small reduction in the waste stream. The extent of the problem, on a global level, is well chronicled. Articles in both the popular and scientific press describe massive and growing accumulations of plastic materials in places as remote as the Pacific Ocean, as well as high northern reaches of the Atlantic. On a personal level, I’ve seen the huge extent of plastic waste along the Caribbean shores of Costa Rica.
In his environmental encyclical, Laudato Si’, Pope Francis warns that “The earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth.” But whose responsibility is it, and how can we, individually or collectively, begin to make the economic and cultural changes to effectively address the problem? Committing to alternatives to plastic containers, including shopping bags, can be an important step, one of which both Dubos and Francis would approve.
Donald A. McCrimmon, Ph.D.
McDevitt Research Associate
Le Moyne College