By Beverly Stein, Tillamook County Master Recyclers
Get your reusable bags ready! On January 1 the single use plastic carryout bag ban will begin for stores and restaurants. To encourage people to use reusable bags and compensate businesses for the more expensive paper bags, you will be charged five cents for paper bags. You can avoid this cost if you bring your own bags.
Keeping bags in your car and remembering to bring them into the store is hard at first but people who live in communities where the ban already exists says “You get used to it!”
We want to thank Nan Devlin at Visit Tillamook Coast (VTC) for recognizing that the new emphasis on reusable bags for shopping is a great way to support Tillamook County’s sustainability efforts with locals and visitors. Visit Tillamook Coast is giving reusable bags printed with their logo to local stores who request them and will make them available at Farmer’s Markets in the summer. Contact VTC at nan@tillamookcoast.com to request the bags.
This is a small step in our efforts to reduce the long term and short term impact of plastic on marine life and in our communities.