Letter: Iowa should outlaw plastic bags and foam containers

Erik Jung
Letter to the Editor

More and more studies have confirmed what most people that spend time outside around Iowa have known for a long time: Plastic pollution is ruining our environment. Arguably the worst of the pollution is polystyrene, or what most people think of as Styrofoam. This plastic waste doesn’t biodegrade, but instead breaks down into smaller pieces that continue to pollute our waterways for decades. Dangerous plastic fragments have been found ingested by hundreds of different species.

Kim Mason of Metro Waste Authority is buried in plastic while collecting from 21 metro cities competing in the 2018 Plastic Bag Swap.

As reported by the Register [Plastic problem: What one tiny Iowa town did to combat it, and how yours ranks], last year when Iowa City, Dubuque and Marshall County came close to banning plastic bags, the American Legislative Exchange Council pushed legislation that made it illegal for cities or counties in Iowa to enact such bans. While this legislation is good for the chemical industry and plastic manufacturers, it’s a significant hurdle for those working to keep Iowa’s lakes, rivers and public lands clean.


Nothing we use for five minutes should pollute our environment for hundreds of years. Iowa should take a step toward protecting our environment by banning foam cups and takeout containers.

— Erik Jung, Ames