PennEnvironment releases letter signed by more than 100 businesses and organizations supporting a plastic bag ban in Pittsburgh

Signers urge local leaders to curb plastic pollution by banning single-use plastic bags

PennEnvironment

PITTSBURGH — PennEnvironment and 100 businesses, organizations and community leaders from every city council district in Pittsburgh have signed a letter released Wednesday urging local leaders to ban single-use plastic bags. 

The letter, addressed to local leaders, points out that single-use plastic bags are a profound threat to our environment and public health. Over time, plastic bags break down into microplastics, which can contain chemicals linked to cancer and hormone disruption. PennEnvironment’s 2021 report Microplastics in Pennsylvania: A Survey of Waterways found the presence of microplastics in each of the Three Rivers, 9 Mile Run, Sewickley Creek, Chartiers Creek, and the Youghiogheny River. 

“We shouldn’t allow plastic bags that we only use for a few minutes to pollute our rivers, streams, parks, neighborhoods and oceans for hundreds of years– especially when we have so many other options to serve the same purpose,” said PennEnvironment Deputy Director Ashleigh Deemer. “The substantial support reflected in this letter shows that Pittsburgh is ready for a change and wants to ban single-use plastic bags.”

In addition to littering our communities and polluting our waterways, plastic bags are made from fossil fuels, polluting our air and water at the time of extraction and during plastic manufacturing. Pollution from plastics production and incineration could amount to 56 gigatons of carbon between now and 2050 — or almost 50 times the annual emissions of all of the coal fired power plants in the United States. For the Pittsburgh region to be a leader in addressing climate change, we need to move beyond single-use bags.

“City Books never considered using plastic bags—a decision that was made as much for financial reasons as it was environmental ones,” said Arlan Hess, owner of City Books, one of the signers of the letter. “We use handled paper shopping bags, because, when we stamp them with the store logo & contact information, they become mobile advertisements for our business—especially when people re-purpose them. This ‘word of mouth’ marketing offsets what might be a slightly higher bag cost versus plastic (depending on supplier), but it eliminates a range of expensive and recurring marketing fees. Paper bags are part of City Books’ overall sustainable business model; reducing plastic waste and saving the planet are just an added bonus.” 

Plastic waste also places a burden on community leaders trying to keep their neighborhoods clean. 

“Pretty Up Beechview has been very successful at combating litter throughout our neighborhood,” said Marya Pittaway, who is the organization’s president. “However, we struggle to be able to affect meaningful change in the amount of plastic grocery bags that end up polluting our community. Plastic bags end up, quite literally, out of our reach, becoming entangled in trees or washed into storm drains and waterways.”

Passing a bag ban in Pittsburgh would likely prevent more than 108 million single-use plastic bags from entering our waste stream and our communities each year, based on statewide numbers.

“It’s encouraging to see such a broad spectrum of support across Pittsburgh’s neighborhoods for plastic waste reduction,” said Pittsburgh Councilperson Erika Strassburger. “I look forward to introducing legislation at City Council to ban single-use plastic bags this fall, and I welcome participation and feedback from businesses and community members to ensure we are successful in keeping our communities and our rivers free of plastic pollution.

When the bag ban is introduced, PennEnvironment will continue to build support for the bill among businesses and members of the public.

The following organizations signed the letter:

1. PennEnvironment

2. 61B Cafe

3. 61C Cafe

4. Ace Paints and Unfinished Furniture 

5. Adda Coffee & Tea

6. Allegheny Youth Development

7. Amanda Lee Glassware

8. Apricot Lane Boutique

9. Arts & Crafts: Botanica & Occult Shop

10. Atelier de Fer Coffee & Tea 

11. Bantha Tea Bar

12. Bear Dog Bicycles

13. Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community (BCMAC)

14. Bhutanese Community Association of Pittsburgh (BCAP)

15. Biddle’s Escape

16. Black Cat Market

17. Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation

18. Botanical Vegan Cafe and Market

19. Box Heart Gallery

20. Breathe Project

21. Building Performance Association

22. Carnegie Mellon University Graduate Student Assembly

23. Chatham University Green Team

24. Chocolate Moose

25. City Books

26. Clean Water Action

27. Climate Reality Project Pittsburgh

28. CMU Sustainable Earth

29. Costa RicArt

30. Dancing Gnome Beer

31. Dianne’s Dishware

32. Eons Fashion Antique

33. Fern Hollow Bicycles

34. FracTracker Alliance

35. Georgetown University

36. Glassworks

37. Greenfield Neighbors for Clean Air

38. Highway Robbery Vintage

39. Hollow Oaks Land Trust

40. Homegrown Yoga

41. Homewood Concerned Citizens Council

42. Humane Action Pittsburgh

43. Inhale Yoga

44. James Floral Shoppe

45. Jerry’s Records

46. Kara Kakes Specialty Cakes

47. Kraynick’s Bike Shop Inc

48. Love, Pittsburgh

49. McDonough’s Antiques

50. Mello & Sons

51. Mix Candle Co

52. Moda Pittsburgh, Moda Lawrenceville 

53. Mountain Watershed Association

54. Mr. Sign

55. Oryza Asian Grill

56. Our Children Our Earth 

57. PASUP. Pittsburghers Against Single Use Plastics

58. Patrick’s Pub and Grille

59. Penn Avenue Pottery

60. Penn Hills Community Development Corporation

61. Phoenix Boutique

62. Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania

63. Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse

64. Pittsburgh Furniture Company

65. Pittsburgh Gold & Diamond Buyers

66. Point Breeze Organization

67. Pressley Ridge

68. Prestogeorge Coffee & Tea

69. Pretty Up Beechview

70. Pure Screen Printing

71. Pursuits

72. Redstart Roasters

73. Rolling Pepperoni

74. Sewickley Yarns

75. Shadyside Nursery

76. Shadyside Variety Store

77. Shear Timing

78. Shepherd Contracting LLC 

79. Songbird Artistry

80. Southside Jewelers & More!

81. Sparkledragon’s Magical Emporium

82. Spoiled Chics

83. Spring Hill Civic League

84. Student Government Board – University of Pittsburgh 

85. Suburban Landscape & Floral Shoppe

86. Sustainable Monroeville 

87. Synthesis

88. The Big Idea Bookstore and Cafe

89. The Picket Fence

90. The Plant Lady

91. The Post-landfill Action Network

92. The Sōl Collective

93. The Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition

94. The Women’s Adventure Club of Western PA

95. Thomas Blvd Group

96. Ujamaa Collective 

97. University of Pittsburgh, Office of Sustainability

98. Vestis

99. White Rabbit Salon

100. Whitehall Green Thumbers Garden Club

101. Wildcard

102. Workshop PGH

103. Yeahyelhsa Illustrated Goods