Last Easter morning was cold and blustery. When I drove across the bridge from Winslow, the still-brown untrimed bushes on the Waterville side were festooned with plastic bags, and the curb and sidewalk were littered with other blowing litter. In the background were the broken windows of the empty mill building. What a “Welcome to Waterville” scene, I thought sarcastically.
I pick up trash from city streets and trails at least weekly. Bags don’t make up all of the trash I clean up but they certainly are a prominant part of the mix.
Our society is drowning in trash and banning some plastic bags will not solve the problem by itself. But it will at least constitute a small first step in demonstrating, as many other towns in Maine have, the responsible behavior needed to begin cleaning up our own mess.
I urge you to vote to support the bag ban in Waterville.
Bill Lee
Waterville
