PETITION TO CITY COUNCIL For the Ban of Single-Use Plastic Bags in all Retail and Grocery Stores Dear Honorable City council Members: Herewith, we submit to you 7000 signatures necessary to pass a City Ordinance for the Ban of all Single-Use Plastic Bags (SUPBs) from all City grocery and retail stores. Attached is a list of comparable ordinances already passed in the USA. Whereas SUPBs are made from oil using energy input of coal-burning power plants and thus unnecessarily absorb our non-renewable resources; Whereas non-biodegradable SUPBs never biodegrade and take 500 to 1000 years to photo-degrade; Whereas biodegradable SUPBs take 6 months to degrade and contribute to methane emissions; Whereas SUPBs add to the capacity of our landfills at the average rate of 4 million tons annually; Whereas only .5% to 3% of SUPBs are reused/recycled of 100 billion bags used annually; Whereas 90% are discarded and stay on the floors of our oceans, lakes and waterways; Whereas all types of SUPBs readily soak up toxins and their polymers add to the degradation of our soil and water; Whereas all types of SUPBs present the same inherent danger to our wildlife, specifically birds and aquatic life, due to their light weight; Whereas all types of SUPBs pollute our food chain as they are ingested by animals, eaten by other animals and/or eventually consumed by humans; Whereas an estimated 100 billion bags used annually at the cost of 4 billion dollars to the retailers and passed on to the consumer; and Whereas landfills routinely report that recycling and weighing down SUPBs is costly and ineffective; We submit to you that Scientific Research, the Wall Street Journal, our Department of Parks & Recreation, ODNR and every volunteer at Earth Day unanimously agree with the statements above. It is time that our fair City rid itself of these unsightly, hazardous and deadly SUPBs in the name of our health, tourism, economy, natural resources, and the environment and join the many other cities who have already taken the lead in banning SUPBs. Therefore, we request that the City of Columbus honor its commitment to green policies and provide more than lip service in its efforts to a clean urban environment and ban all SUPBs, sold or gifted at all retailers and grocery stores. Respectfully, Ban Plastic Bags in Columbus at Facebook.com http://www.facebook.com/groups/130463973659415/