What will we gain if we give up plastic shopping bags? We’ll have fewer chemicals in the air we breathe. We’ll have a good feeling in our hearts knowing that fewer whales, dolphins, sea turtles, birds and other animals and wildlife will be suffocated or get a lethal blockage from mistaking plastic bags for food. Leatherback turtles are almost gone from our world. Their diet includes eating jellyfish and many die from ingesting plastic bags (and balloons) that look like jellyfish.

Every time I have swum in the ocean in the past eight years, be it in remote or public parts of the Pacific or Atlantic oceans, I have found pieces of plastic or whole plastic bags floating in the water with me. It does only a tiny bit of good, but I feel compelled to stuff any plastic I can reach into my wet suit or swim suit to take back to land and dispose of it. The task of clearing the ocean of all this plastic is daunting, virtually impossible, but I feel we can decrease the amount that ends up in the ocean and in landfills by finding good alternatives.

Like many of you, our family has used reusable cloth bags for years. We take them to grocery stores, department stores, bakeries and markets. We feel good about dramatically cutting down the number of additional bags coming into our home over time. There are even good alternatives for produce including nylon mesh and lined bags for dry and wet produce, easily washable and quick-drying.

A number of communities have officially made a move to encourage alternatives: Seattle, Shoreline, Edmonds, Issaquah, Mukilteo, Bainbridge Island, Bellingham, Port Townsend and all of Thurston County. We hope Kirkland and others will join that list. As we get ready to leave our homes, stashing bags in our cars and in a container by our front door at home, we can think of the appreciation of the wildlife with whom we share our world.

Tracy Hendershott, Kirkland