In response to Mayor Joan McBride’s recent letter highlighting Kirkland’s commitment to the environment, how about Kirkland City Council banning plastic bags?

Washington state residents use more than 2 billion plastic bags each year; more than 95 percent of these bags end up in landfills or as litter. According to Environment Washington, plastic bags never biodegrade. Designed for brief use (on average 12 minutes), many of these thin plastic bags enter the Puget Sound through sewers or by air.

Earlier this month, Olympia City Council voted unanimously to ban single-use plastic grocery bags starting in July 2014.

Nearby, Tumwater already voted to ban plastic bags. These cities join other Washington state municipalities, including Edmonds, Seattle, Bellingham, Shoreline, Mukilteo, Issaquah and more, in recognizing that a ban on plastic bags reduces a city’s waste stream. I urge the city of Kirkland to pass a ban on plastic bags. This would really make us a “progressive town on the Eastside.”

Tania Scutt, Kirkland