In response to Meredith Warren’s June 10 op-ed “Don’t sack my plastic bags’’: There are good reasons for Massachusetts to take the step of banning single-use plastic bags statewide.

First, plastic bags are a scourge on the environment, killing marine animals and entering the very food chain that sustains life on the planet.

In addition, Americans use 100 billion plastic bags a year, most of which end up incinerated, in a landfill, or as litter.

Encouraging shoppers to bring their own reusable bags would provide an easy, painless substitute for the nuisance of plastic bags.

The ban would help retailers comply with a uniform standard rather than have a patchwork of different rules.

The City of Newton passed a plastic bag ban last year, and I conservatively estimate that we are diverting 2 million to 3 million bags a month from entering our waste stream, contaminating our recycling bins, and contributing to litter.

The goal is not to push people to paper bags, which have their own carbon footprint, but to encourage consumers to get into the habit of bringing their own reusable bags. A 10 cent fee would help with this goal.

Alison Leary

Newton

The writer is a Newton city councilor and led the effort to ban plastic bags in Newton.