Meijer made a $20,000 contribution to the GOP the same day the state Senate Commerce Committee started hearings for a bill that would ban local communities from banning plastic shopping bags, according to the Michigan Campaign Finance Network [.mcfn.org/node/289].
Meijer should not be paying off politicians in order to continue its plastic bag use. Plastic bags often make their way to our oceans and choke, strangle, and starve wildlife such as sea turtles. Many countries have heavily taxed or even banned plastic bags outright. Washington, DC instituted a five cent tax on plastic bags, and the result is far fewer plastic bags are winding up in the Anacostia River.
I urge Rick Keyes, Meijer's CEO, to switch from using plastic shopping bags to biodegradable bags. I saw a small grocery store in Lansing that uses biodegradable shopping bags made from corn. There is no reason Meijer cannot do it too. Rick Keyes' e-mail is rick.keyes@meijer.com rick.keyes@meijer.com.
