Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal to charge a five-cent fee on plastic bags is asking for too little money, I think, for each bag if he is trying to make a change. I am kind of afraid that I will not be ready for these changes and that I may forget to bring my own bags to the supermarket, but I care about the environment enough to take a chance.
Plastic bags are all over our community. They are so bad for our environment because they just keep building up. Even if the bag is made into something else, it will not break down into the soil so they will stay in the landfills for many years. And if they are melted and made into something else, the gases that are released into the air are toxic and very bad for the environment. This is basically a lose-lose situation.
Plastic bags keep being made because we do not recycle them; instead we use them to throw our garbage out. I personally don’t think I will stop using plastic bags unless I have no choice. Money is something everyone cares about, and spending money is something no one wants to do. That’s why having a fee for plastic bags is a very smart idea and it helps in two ways, one by reducing the use of plastic bags in our everyday life, and two, because every time someone does use a plastic bag, they will pay for it and that money will go to the city’s budget. I don’t think that plastic bags should be used in the supermarket at all. When people go grocery shopping, they should bring big or small carts and cloth bags to carry their groceries.
This is going to be better for the environment and as a member of the New York League of Conservation Voters, I worry about what is going on. Not having plastic bags would affect me because I use them around the house as garbage bags, to carry my food or extra pairs of clothes for gym. But I could use cloth bags for that. I can use one bag for the garbage in my house. It might take a while to get used to these changes, but we have to start making a change now if we want to see improvements in a few years.
-Yazmin Manzo
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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.