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Two weeks ago, the General Assembly passed the budget and Gov. Wolf signed it into law.

In that 69-page document, a small, three-paragraph provision bans municipalities across Pennsylvania from taxing or banning the sale of plastic bags. With this provision Pennsylvania will fall behind many other states tackling plastic pollution by banning or taxing plastic bags. Pennsylvania already has a litter problem and this provision is going to cause the streets in our cities and our beautiful state forests to suffer more from single-use plastic waste.

This year many municipalities across Pennsylvania were eager to take local action by banning plastic bags or creating a system for shoppers to purchase reusable bags, but with this new provision in place much of the hard work done by local elected officials, community groups and residents will go unseen.

This is not what Pennsylvanians wanted and we must prove to our state legislators that we need to move away from a single-use society and start to care for our planet.

Plastics are clogging our streams and rivers, but legislators are not focused on this. Plastic bags are some of the most prominent waste that is rolling around the different spots around Luzerne County.

We must preserve the beauty that is within Pennsylvania and tell our legislatures that our local communities want to save our environment.

James Conroy

Pennenvironment Intern

Wilkes-Barre

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