Letter: Stop linking plastic bag bans with reusable bags

EDITOR,
The extreme environmentalists are demanding that Scotts Valley ban plastic bags, an idea that I fully support. However, the only reason that they tie that ban to the issue of charging for paper bags is to force everyone to carry around reusable bags. Just because they like carrying cloth bags around with them doesn’t mean that we all want to do it.
I support Mayor Reed and the others that are postponing the decision as long as the extremists insist on connecting the two issues together. I’m just waiting for the environmentalists to admit that their “reusable” bags won’t last a lifetime and when they are disposed of and end up in the landfill they will be there for decades beyond the time that paper bags have long deteriorated.
Get off your high horses and leave those of us that have appreciated having paper bags included in the prices we pay at the retailers alone. Virtually everyone I know that takes home paper bags continues to use them for other purposes until they are no longer useful. Ban the plastic. Forget the fees. How hard can that be?
Don’t we already have enough government control without them telling merchants how to run their businesses?
Elwin Haddix, Ben Lomond