SENATE COMMITTEE PASSES REUSABLE BAG RESOLUTION

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                 Thursday, April 3, 2008 Contact: Senator Deborah Reynolds

(603) 271-3569

Marjorie  Rose, parent advisor

(603) 667-1823

SENATE COMMITTEE PASSES REUSABLE BAG RESOLUTION

CONCORD – After hearing from three teenagers from Hanover High School, the Senate Energy, Environment and Economic Development Committee voted 5-0 to recommend passage by the full Senate of House Concurrent Resolution 17, encouraging the use of reusable shopping bags.

“This isn’t going to cost the government any money or require any regulation,” said Jennifer Helble, 16 and a sophomore at Hanover High, presenting a winning argument from the start.

The Hanover students, not all of whom came to testify today, have create a group called Kids for a Cooler Planet and are committed to educating store owners and consumers about the importance of abandoning disposable plastic and paper bags in favor of reusable bags. The resolution reflects their effort to get the Legislature’s endorsement and they’re seeking similar support from Vermont lawmakers.

“The United States consumes 100 billion plastic bags annually,” explained Ellen Irwin, 16, who started the group after seeing reusable bags in stores in Australia. It takes 12 million barrels of oil to make those 100 billion plastic bags, she explained. Furthermore, paper bags don’t provide a real environmental alternative because their manufacture contributes heavily to air and water pollution.

These students have already convinced Hanover and Norwich, VT merchants to make the reusable bags available and the communities are seeing a marked reduction in the use of plastic as a result, the students said.

John Dumais, president of the New Hampshire Grocers Association, spoke in support of the bill encouraging the switch to resusable bags.

“It reduces our costs frankly, and that cost goes directly back to the consumers,” he said. “We’re totally and fully supportive of this.”

Michael Guilfoy of the state Department of Environmental Services said his department also supports the resolution.  “We definitely think you’re doing a great thing here,” he told the students.

The student presentation, which included the dumping of 500 plastic bags on the committee room floor, quickly won the hearts of the Senate committee members. “This was a wonderful presentation, very factual, very data-driven, a very, very nice job,” said Senator Jacalyn Cilley (D-Barrington).