YELLOWKNIFE - Leaf Rapids, Man. and San Francisco, California are the first two communities in North America to ban single-use plastic bags for groceries. In Leaf Rapids, businesses that give away or sell those bags face a $1,000 fine.

Call our 24-hour, automated telephone poll at 920-4298. Press one if you support such a ban; press two if you don't. Tell us your first name if you agree to have your comment posted on nnsl.com

Yellowknifer Tales from the Dump columnist Walt Humphries says the time is right for the territorial government to follow suit.

Here are some facts about plastic garbage bags:

When one ton of plastic bags is reused or recycled, the energy equivalent of 11 barrels of oil are saved.

Plastic bags carry 80 per cent of the groceries in the United States, up from 5 per cent in 1982.

Somewhere between 500 billion and one trillion bags are used around the world each year.

According to the Canadian Plastics Industry Association: Plastic grocery bags consume 40 per cent less energy than competing materials; they generate 80 per cent less solid waste; they produce 70 per cent fewer atmospheric emissions; and they release up to 94 per cent fewer waterborne wastes.

Put another way, 2,000 plastic bags weigh in at 30 kilograms (66 pounds) compared to 128 kilograms of bags made from competing materials.

Yellowknifer wants to know what you think.

Should the territorial government or city council ban single-use plastic bags from the NWT or the city?

Call our 24-hour, automated telephone poll at 920-4298. Press one if you support such a ban; press two if you don't. Tell us your first name if you agree to have your comment posted on nnsl.com

The deadline to call in your comment is 5 p.m., April 20. Answers will be printed in Yellowknifer on April 25.