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James Ralph walks by the same streams and ponds that he did as a kid growing up in Wilton and wonders what happened to the wildlife. But one culprit Ralph has ruled out is the plastic bag.
"I, for one, love plastic bags," Ralph said Monday night at the library. Speaking at the Board of Selectmen's public information session on a reusable bag initiative, Ralph told how he saves all of his plastic bags and reuses them in a variety of ways, including to line small trash baskets. He said he is not against reusable or paper bags but prefers plastic bags because of how he reuses them.
The initiative's goal is to improve the environment by encouraging the use of reusable bags and banning the use of plastic bags.
Mark Caraluzzi of Caraluzzi's Market and Peter Keating of Village Market said they support the use of reusable bags to help the environment but are worried that customers like Ralph would go elsewhere to get plastic bags.
"If we give them a choice, they will continue to do what they normally do," Caraluzzi said of people choosing plastic bags.
But Bruce Hampson assured the grocers that they would not lose business because he and others would rather shop at a green market. He also said that most people don't reuse plastic bags.
"You know where (the bags) end up? Somewhere in the ocean," Hampson said.
Survey results conducted by David Brown of Fairfield University comparing bag use at the Stop & Shop stores in Westport, Norwalk and Wilton showed that in 53 percent of customers in Westport use reusable bags. In Wilton, 10 percent use reusable. Westport began a plastic bag ban in March 2009.
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