Item 3: Ordinance on Plastic Bags

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Bag Ban Public Testimony 7/24/2012 – 9/10/2012 Thank you for considering these thoughts, A concerned citizen 8/8/12 From: LApsel@aol.com To: Eugene Mayor, City Council, and City Manager Subject: the health danger in reusable bags According to Family Circle magazine (Feb. 2012): "97% [is] The percentage of people who never wash their reusable shopping bags according to a new survey. Researchers found large numbers of bacteria in all the sacks they tested, and even detected E coli in 8% of them." Human health should be the primary environmental concern of our species. To outlaw plastic and paper bags and cause such an unavoidable increased exposure to bacteria, filth, and possibly vermin is particularly unfair to our elderly, our sick, including those with suppressed immune systems, and our young. Remember, even that rare 3% who washes their bags are probably only doing so occasionally and encouraging washing affects the environment in another way with increased electrical and water usage anyway I think that even as things are now, there should be separate grocery bagging counters to isolate germs and dirty reused bags from people wanting clean, new, germ free bags. A small charge on bags to encourage reuse (at home!) and recycling, as with plastic bottles, seems preferable to encouraging the use of unsanitary, bacteria ridden reusable bags. I am a firm environmentalist, but as someone with a weak immune system, I am horrified by this misguided harmful idea. The health of human beings comes first as we are indeed part of the environment and need to be protected too! Lynn Reichman Eugene 9/6/2012 From: Emily Stuart estuart122@gmail.com To: Eugene Mayor, City Council, and City Manager Subject: Please support the ban on single-use plastic bags in Eugene Dear Mayor, City Council, and City Manager- I am writing to support a ban on single-use plastic checkout bags within the city of Eugene to reduce the use of plastic bags, encourage the use of reusable bags and