Teen inspires Grayslake's reusable-bag effort
Grayslake resident Abby Goldberg was an elementary school student three years ago when she received attention for prodding former Gov. Pat Quinn into vetoing legislation that would have created a statewide plastic bag recycling program and disallowed local bans on those bags in the process.
As part of a project at environmentally focused Prairie Crossing Charter School in Grayslake, Goldberg organized an online petition and gained 173,000 signatures against the proposal in 2012 out of concern that plastic bag bans wouldn't be permitted. She presented the petition signatures to Quinn and urged him to veto the proposal.
Her zeal for the issue has not subsided, as evidenced by her role in the Grayslake village board's decision to officially declare September as Bring Your Own Bag Month in the village. Jewel-Osco on Route 120 in Grayslake has agreed to participate in the effort to steer shoppers away from single-use plastic bags.
Mayor Rhett Taylor said Goldberg was behind a resolution approved last week that says single-use plastic bags often are discarded and blow around. All Grayslake businesses are being encouraged to participate in cost-effective bag programs with reusable or cloth bags. “The charter school turns out a lot of students who are very active in their community and do a lot to make the community a better place. Abby is one of those students,” Taylor said.
In a presentation before the village board, Goldberg touched on how she became involved in the plastic bag issue. She said she lives in the Prairie Crossing subdivision and became concerned after seeing scores of plastic bags from the nearby Countryside Landfill in Grayslake flying on windy days and getting caught in trees and bushes.
Although Goldberg would like Grayslake to have a local law banning plastic bags, the Grayslake Central High School junior learned the village can't do it because it does not have home-rule powers. Home rule automatically kicks in for cities with a population of 25,000 or more, which is why Chicago was able to enact a plastic bag ban Aug. 1, initially starting with chain stores and franchises.
Bring Your Own Bag Month is the next best thing to a law in Grayslake, Goldberg said.
“I approached Trustee (Bruce) Bassett, who was so graciously willing to help me with this,” she said. “And we approached the local Jewel.”
Bassett said he, Goldberg and her mother brought the idea to a meeting with the Grayslake Jewel-Osco managers. He also took information from Goldberg and edited it to form the Bring Your Own Bag Month proclamation the village board passed.
“I wish every kid in Grayslake was as engaged as Abby,” Bassett said.
Jewel-Osco spokeswoman Melissa Hill said Goldberg and other teenage volunteers will be at the Grayslake store from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19. Hill said Goldberg and her team will be stationed at a display table with 10-cent reusable bags for sale while sharing a message about how it's a way to help the environment.
“We will provide the volunteers with $1 coupons to reward our guests who they ‘catch' bringing in their own bags that day while shopping,” Hill said.
Grayslake Central teacher Jeff Barry, a National Honor Society sponsor, circulated sign-up sheets to assist Goldberg in getting volunteers.
Critics of plastic bag bans say are they doing more harm than good for the environment. That point was made in an August letter to the editor in the Daily Herald from Victor Nava, a staff writer at The Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, an Alexandria, Virginia-based agency in support of public policies that emphasize liberty and free markets.
Nava said thicker, reusable plastic bags can take up to 10 times longer to deteriorate than those used for single uses. He also cited research showing plastic bags make up “a very small percentage” of visible litter in the United States.
Goldberg responded to Nava in her letter to the editor.
“Just because you think plastic bags are a small problem doesn't mean that it shouldn't be fixed,” she wrote. “It's such an easy solution. Stop giving them out for free and stop taking them.”