Dear Editor:

Have you noticed the many acres that have been tarnished by plastic bag litter along Wyo. Highway 120 east of the Park County landfill? Park County is a tourist destination and this eyesore does not speak well for us as stewards of beautiful Park County.

There are two parts to this plastic bag problem, one of which is a national issue. Though Powell Valley Recycling continues to accept them, there is currently not a market for recycling plastic bags, or film, as it is called in the recycling business. Yet, in the United States we continue to produce and utilize countless numbers of plastic bags. Some cities and states have banned the use of plastic bags entirely to help address this problem.

Where do all these plastic bags end up? Some end up in our landfills, but plenty of them end up blowing around, hanging in trees, on fences, in our irrigation ditches, waterways, oceans and some end up being ingested by wildlife that die because of it.

When the citizens of Park County responsibly dispose of their plastic bags in their household garbage, that plastic waste then becomes the responsibility of the Park County landfill. It is the responsibility of the Park County landfill to see that they don’t become wind-blown litter. Just last week I followed a City of Cody garbage truck heading for the landfill. In a short distance I saw four plastic bags fly out of the garbage truck. If one of us citizens littered along our highway, we could receive up to a $750 fine for doing so. The Park County commissioners, the City of Cody and managers of the landfill need to address the problem of litter blowing from the truck and the landfill and spoiling our beautiful Wyoming landscape.

While we citizens here in Park County cannot solve the national issue of plastic waste, we can choose to use fewer plastic bags in the first place by bringing our own reusable bags wherever we shop.

Marynell Oechsner

President of the Board at Powell Valley Recycling