Now that the Laredo Merchants Association has succeeded in overturning Laredo’s plastic bag ban ordinance, I invite all of them to come forward and be recognized publicly. We want to know what a small group of dedicated greedy businessmen can do to affect a city of 250,000 if you just set your mind to it. Laredo beseeches you to come out of the shadows and accept all of the accolades you deserve.
Show us what “conservative” Republicans all around the state who joined forces with you and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees can do to a proud city that just wanted a cleaner environment to live in. Most of your well-heeled supporters have probably never been to our fair city, because we look different and they think we are in Mexico. Those who did visit did not want to return because of all of the trash and garbage they observed all over Laredo. All our parking lots and creeks and parks used to be littered with flimsy plastic bags that have been absent the last few years. Photos taken of creeks and parks before and after the ordinance took effect showed a dramatic difference.
Thanks to this “conservative group” we will begin to see trash everywhere once again. Why, you ask, would this group wish this environmental disaster on our fellow Laredoans? Why would they want the Rio Grande River, already one of the world’s most endangered, to be polluted by tons of plastic bags? Sadly, for a few dollars more, this anonymous group, whose foul deed will live in infamy, will toast tonight in their gated well-manicured homes and subdivisions. I propose a plaque be erected in their name in every public park, at Lake Casa Blanca and on the banks of our beautiful river to forever commemorate their Pyrrhic victory.
Sad to learn of this Sup Ct decision to license the pollution of our environment especially our malls, grocery stores and river. This is a hollow victory for the LMA since they are literally putting a plastic ring around their own necks for short term gain. Imagine a river without plastic bags, and our malls without plastic bags and our parking lots without plastic bags. Laredo deserves better leadership than the LMA, from our business community. With so many biodegradable alternatives this Sup Ct decision is as hollow as the air in every plastic bag that will litter and linger in our environment……….