It began like this on a Monday night: “I hate plastic bags and I’m prepared to vote tonight to eliminate plastic bags or brown paper bags –- whatever it takes to get rid of them,” said Ald. Ann Rainey of the city council in Evanston.
If you’re familiar with Evanston — it was one of the first the first, and last, to ban alcohol, from 1858 until 1972 — you know it prides itself on being high-minded.
And then, here comes this bag thing.
Jurisdictions nationwide have either banned or considered banning plastic shopping bags. (Our graphics department put together this handy bag-ban map.) Environmentalists decry plastic bags as wasteful and unnecessary, and Evanston city council members have suggested banning them as others have done. One Evanston proposal, however, adds a twist — some council members also want to ban paper bags. TribLocal reporter Jonathan Bullington was at an Evanston city committee meeting Monday night when the proposal arose.
Perhaps the days of not thinking much about the free bags at the end of the checkout counter are drawing to a close.
The debate is still in its infancy but, at its most high-minded, the issue is certain to draw our attention to things most of us take for granted — even as we use them to lug bulging loads of groceries up to our homes.
It may also have a few people wondering “Wha?”
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