One member of the Clintonville Area Commission hopes Columbus will follow Chicago's lead when it comes to plastic bags.

One member of the Clintonville Area Commission hopes Columbus will follow Chicago's lead when it comes to plastic bags.

The Windy City's aldermen voted 36-10 in April to ban the bags in most stores starting in 2015.

While similar measures have been instituted elsewhere in the country -- including all of California as of late August along with Portland, Ore.; Washington, D.C.; and Austin, Texas -- CAC member Kristopher Keller said Chicago became the first Midwestern city to take such action.

"I figured if Chicago can do it, Columbus can do it," the District 8 representative said last week. "Columbus is a leader in environmental action, as evidenced by our recycling program. People are interested in the environment here in Columbus.

"I feel like we're the natural next place to do this."

Keller has invited Elise Yoder, conservation program coordinator for the Ohio Sierra Club, to address the area commission during its meeting today, Oct. 2, on the subject of banning plastic bags. Following her remarks, Keller said he intends to introduce a resolution asking the other commission members to urge City Council to adopt a measure for Columbus that would prohibit the use of such bags on the part of large retailers -- "the ones that distribute thousands of the plastic grocery bags" -- but would exclude small local enterprises.

"It should not hurt the local economy," Keller said.

The growing trend toward banning the bags has spawned bagtheban.com, a website and project of Hilex Poly, "an industry-leading manufacturer of recycled content high-density polyethylene bags, films and related products," the site states.

"Plastic shopping bags, the kind you get from your grocer or at the corner store, might soon vanish from stores in your community," according to bagtheban. "Misguided bans and taxes on plastic bags could weigh down the economy, increase costs for consumers and small business and leave a larger carbon footprint on the environment than alternatives."

Plastic bags, Keller counters, "take a couple of hundred years to break down, becoming a major pollutant in oceans and rivers."

"Plastic bags are the most environmentally friendly option at checkout," the industry-sponsored website claims. "In fact, alternatives like reusable and paper bags increase global warming and use more resources."

"There are adequate and economical replacements," Keller said. "Paper bags are a real resource. Cloth bags are renewable and biodegradable."

Keller said he feels that not only is the time ripe for such a ban in Columbus, but also it's something that can be done.

"It's low-hanging fruit," he said. "It's something we can easily do. There is a lot of impact all across the ecological spectrum.

"It's a huge source of litter along rivers and waterways. Because it's so visible, I think a lot of people ... are already using replacement paper and cloth bags. I don't think its a very hard thing to accomplish."