Plastic Poetry

After today's column -- on a City Council bill to ban plastic bags and polystyrene packing materials -- got a call from Joe Donahue, age 75, of Conshohocken, who wanted me to hear his poem entitled "Paper or Plastic."

Joe says that back in "twenty-oh-four" he was driving between Minnesota and New York, coming back from the senior tour, where he works as a caddy.

"I was by myself, and I was amazed, just absolutely amazed, to see the plastic as you come through the farm lands. They all have the wire fences, and the lakes for cattle and fish farming, and the trees were all hanging this crepe of plastic. I settled down and wrote "Paper or Plastic."

This is why I love having my phone number at the end of these pieces.

With permission from Joe D., as he signs his poems, here goes:

Some other calls were less poetic.

"Don't write about plastic again," warned a lady from South Philly, who said Councilman DiCicco should know better to spend his time trying to ban plastic bags.

"Paper bags bring roaches," she said, "and we don't need any more kinds of bugs around here."

Which is sort of poetic, actually.

Another writer, John Monaghan from Glenside put it this way:

you know, most plastic grocery bags are recycleable (look for the "2" in the arrow triangle on the bottom of the bag).  The only ones I know that aren't are Target bags (They are 4's).  So why ban them if you can just put them in a recycling bin?  Genuardi's even has plastic bag recycling outside a lot of its stores.

Recyclable? Yes, but not really. 
Recycling plastic bags is not an economically viable solution. See an explanation here:
http://www.reusablebags.com/facts.php?id=5

mj:  Regardless of whether or not they're recyclable, the environmental impact on making them is enormous, and it isn't balanced by recycling.

The best choice is re-usable canvas or cloth bags.  Even better than paper.
Shop Rite sells them for 99 cents, and they give you a 2-cent refund every time you use them.  But, you have to remind the kids at the cashier stand.

uhmmm good! make some slogans also plzzz