Ban of Plastic Bag Use

A recent opinion piece in TheUniversity Star under the title, City council should push plastic bag ban, urges the action of students and people of San Marcos in support of a city ban on the use of plastic bags. The article appears in a Texas State news outlet which could reach many in the San Marcos community. The author appeals to people that live in San Marcos to act now. She does this by writing about the risk of plastic bags being hazardous to the beautiful local wildlife and environment. She gives examples of how the damage done by plastic bags could effect people's hobbies while living in San Marcos, like spending time on the river. Plastic bags can end up floating in the river and can be eaten by the water wildlife, causing blockages, infection and death to these animals. The evidence stated throughout the article I found to be supported, but with more detailed investigation you find that it's not so black and white. I did find in a National Geographic news article, called Are Plastic Grocery Bags Sacking the Environment? , the evidence for the fact that 500 billion to a trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year. The author also says that countries like Italy, Rwanda, Bangladesh, China, and Australia had proceeded to ban plastic bags from their territory. With further investigation of these bans, I found that the effect of these bans have varied from Rwanda where it is highly affective to Bangladesh where it has not been enforced at all and so plastic bag use is higher than ever. In China only certain types and thickness of plastic bags are banned but not all. A solution she gives to the problem of plastic bags is to use reusable bags that are convenient and not dangerous to our environment but, with further research, that can be discredited. One article that discusses the negative side, on Mercurynews.com called Action Line: Study: reusable grocery bags canbe dangerous to your family's health, describes a study which found that reusable bags have the potential for cross-contamination of food products, causing the growth of bacteria including e-coli. Overall the message is very clear and understandable. I do agree with the message and what should be done to change the harmful effects of plastic bag use. Before I read this article, I always knew this was an issue but didn’t take it seriously. This article makes me think harder about it, and make some changes with how much I use plastic bags.

Changes For Exotic Pets in Texas?

             There is an article in The TexasTribune titled Humane Society Wants Tougher Exotic Pet Rules in Texas, that addresses the issues with the lack of laws regulating the keeping of exotic animals as pets in a place of residence. The Humane Society of the United States believes that the rules on exotic pets statewide need to be more strict; they are planning to ask lawmakers to strengthen the laws that regulate the ownership of such animals. Texas law states that people who own exotic animals need to register their animals with their municipal or county animal control offices. By law in Texas, it is the local government's decision whether to regulate exotic pet ownership or ban it outright. The article says that more and more states are coming to the decision to ban private ownership of exotic animals — “21 states already have comprehensive bans, and another 8 states ban most exotic animals as pets”. The reason why this has become such an issue, and important to The Humane Society, is because there have been incidents in the last year that have put people in danger and The Humane Society is trying to prevent that from happening again. Jordan Crump, a spokeswoman for the Humane Society of the United States, says that, “Statistics show that there are more tigers held privately in Texas than are alive in the wild right now.” There are some counties that have banned exotic pets already, but others have not and, because of the lack of laws for exotic pets, “people are county-shopping” for the best areas to live in with their exotic pets and not have to worry about the rules. This is an interesting article to read because it brings light to an issue that many Texans (including me) have not thought about. If there are people that, when they have the freedom, are irresponsible about the care of an exotic animal, it can be very detrimental to the community and and issue that should be addressed by lawmakers to prevent mistreatment and putting the community at risk.