Letters to the editor

American grocery stores use too many plastic bags. 

I am an international USC student from Korea. Since many Koreans are familiar with American culture through movies and music, things haven’t looked that weird to me since I arrived here. Well, one thing has. In supermarkets, all the cashiers double-bag nearly everything, including gallons of milk, which have handles! In my country, you can easily see consumers using alternatives like personal sacks, big paper bags and a self-packaging desk with unused boxes. I like things in the U.S., but why don’t you make your beautiful country even better?

Jay Chang

Graduate student, industrial and systems engineering 

 

USC community should support LA plastic bag ban. 

I walk my dog every morning down my street a few blocks north of campus, and even though I rarely bring one, I am never without a poop bag because I find plastic bags stuck under fences, in bushes, lying in gutters or drifting casually down the street. According to the Clean Air Council, the state of California spends about $25 million sending plastic bags to landfills each year, and another $8.5 million to remove littered bags just like these from streets. I urge the USC community to rally behind the bag ban that the L.A. City Council to will vote on next Wednesday, April 18. Call your councilmember today.

Anne Ohliger

Senior, environmental studies