Dear Neighbor –
The City of Providence is joining communities across the world in banning harmful single-use plastic bags. On October 22, 2019 businesses in the capital city will no longer offer single-use plastic bags at the point of sale and will instead offer recyclable paper bags or thicker reusable bags with stitched handles.
The time to act is now. It takes approximately 12 million barrels of oil – and massive amounts of water and energy – to manufacture the 100 billion plastic bags that Americans go through every year, contributing to rapid global climate change. Those bags are then used for an average of 12 minutes before ending up in our landfills, or worse, littered throughout our neighborhoods and waterways. Plastic bags are the number one contaminant to the City’s recycling stream, they kill 100,000 marine animals annually and they have long-term effects as they take at least 500 years to degrade.
The City of Providence wants to ensure that our entire community is aware of and engaged with the Retail Plastic Bag Ban. In addition to continued outreach efforts mobilized through partnerships and across City departments, the Office of Sustainability has launched a dedicated Retail Plastic Bag Ban page at SustainPVD.com. The City is also partnering with DWRI Letterpress to hold two celebratory poster printing events on October 17 and 19, where community members are invited to help hand press posters that will be distributed across Providence.
Need a reusable bag? The Zero Waste Providence community group hosts bag exchanges at all Providence Community Library locations. If you have clean reusable bags, consider donating them to the bag exchange so that other community members have access to free reusable bags.
If you have any questions or comments about Providence’s Retail Plastic Bag Ban, please visit SustainPVD.com or contact the Office of Sustainability by dialing 3-1-1.