Marrero State Senator Patrick Connick told WWL’s Tommy Tucker it’s time to do away with single-use plastic bags, and he’s got legislation to make it happen.
There’s been an increased focus on the growing mountains of litter plaguing the state, and Connick said nixing the plastic bag would be one option for chipping away at the problem.
“Those are the things that you see coming out the garbage trucks and sitting on the side of the road, and we have to go spend millions of dollars as a state to go pick them up,” said Connick. “They’re piling up in landfills, clogging recycling machinery, polluting our lakes and environment, rivers, it goes on and on and on.”
Connick said only 10% of all bags are ever recycled and over 3.5 million tons of single-use plastic bags are discarded nationally.
Under the bill, the smaller single-use plastic bags used to hold things like vegetables or raw meat would still be allowed in grocery stores. Free reusable bags would be offered in low-income areas. Unlike in states like Hawaii, or countries like the U.K., the use of such bags would be outright prohibited, instead of implementing a bag surcharge.
The session begins next week.