Montgomery County has proven to be a leader both regionally and nationally when it comes to enacting bans on single-use plastics at the local level, writes Justin Heinze for Patch.

The county is home to nine out of 21 municipalities in Pennsylvania that have issued some sort of plastic ban.

“Plastic bags are the poster child for the environmental harm caused by single-use plastics,” said PennEnvironment’s Zero Waste Advocate Faran Savitz earlier this year after West Norriton adopted a plastic bag ban.

He added that “nothing we use for a few minutes, such as single-use plastic bags, should be allowed to litter our communities, pollute our environment, and fill our landfills and incinerators for hundreds of years to come.”

In addition to West Norriton, the Montgomery County municipalities that have already issued these bans are Narberth, Upper Merion, Ambler, Lower Merion, Springfield Township, Montgomery Township, Whitemarsh Township, and Upper Moreland.

The first one to pass this type of ordinance in Pennsylvania was Narberth in 2018.

Environmental organizations are continuing to work with other townships in the hopes that more will join the list of municipalities with bans on plastic bags.

Read more about plastic bag bans in Montgomery County at Patch.

________________