VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – They seem to end up in just about anywhere.
“They just pop up everywhere and they can blow in the winds like little ghosts, or get buried in the sand,” said Robert Fanney of Manteo, North Carolina.
Plastic bags are one of the most littered items according to environmentalists.
To cut down on the number of plastic bags in the environment, Virginia Beach Councilman Guy Tower sponsored a proposal to charge grocery store shoppers in the city $.05 per plastic bag.
The fee is meant to encourage using reusable bags, but now the proposal seems to be dead on arrival. The councilman withdrew it at Tuesday night’s city council meeting.
Tower said he wants to give the newly elected council members and the public a chance to weigh in. He’s hopeful a new proposal will be adopted soon.
The Outer Banks had a plastic bag ban for eight years until it was lifted in 2017
Some shoppers are split on imposing a bag fee.
“I don’t think it’s fair,” said Mimi Chea of Kill Devil Hills. “We shouldn’t be charged. It’s bad enough we’re doing our groceries, and everything is going up. Why should we be charged $.05 for a bag?”
Shopper Steven Garrett said he’d be willing to pay a fee.
“I would be all for it, because plastic stays in the environment forever,” the Kill Devil Hills resident said. “It just don’t go away.”
Beaches are mainly why tourists come to the Outer Banks and Virginia Beach, but environmentalists say plastic bags frequently end up on the sand, roadways and in the water. The litter is not only ugly but has a huge ripple effect.
“They do harm to aquatic life as well as human life in the end, because they don’t go away,” said Lisa Renee Jennings, the Hampton Roads Grassroots Coordinator for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. “Plastic bags simply break down to microplastics, which are eaten by smaller fish, larger fish and ultimately consumed by humans. So, in many ways, plastic bags are not doing the environment any help.”
Some people on the Outer Banks, including avid surfer Robert Fanney, said more needs to be done to keep the bags out of the water.
“We all enjoy the ocean and I believe we all just need to take a little bit of responsibility to protect our shores,” said Fanney.
