It is easy to stop using plastic bags

You do the readers of the area a great service by pointing out the potential disastrous results of our continued use of so many of these bags.

It is mind-boggling to think that in a single year, Americans use 100 billion bags that will be in our landfills for 1,000 years.

Why should anyone be spending research dollars to find ways to recycle these things when it is simpler to just stop using them.

It is very discouraging to realize a country like China, not known for conservation, is way ahead of the United States in realizing there is a problem and that something must be done about it.

New York City and the state of California are attacking the problem by requiring large stores to recycle bags. When will the State of Illinois wake up to the problem?

Someone is quoted in your article as saying that "it's not easy to change habits," but I disagree.

It took me a little while to get used to carrying my own shopping bag into stores, (guys don't do that) but I got over that quickly and now carry a half dozen cloth bags in my car all the time.

I take them into the grocery store, drug store, book store and so will others.

Please don't let this issue be forgotten in your paper.

It is important, and I hope you have only just begun to write about it. And while we're talking recycling, how about Styrofoam cups?

I stop at least twice a week to buy a cup of coffee, and it occurred to me that I alone am contributing about one hundred cups and lids into that landfill in a year's time.

So, now, if I didn't remember to bring my insulated cup with me, I skip the coffee.

Anatole Crane

Barrington Hills