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Plastic Bags: From Practical Carryall to Pariah
Green Technology Featured Articles
July 08, 2013

Plastic Bags: From Practical Carryall to Pariah

By Cheryl Kaften
TMCnet Contributor

Last month, while New Yorkers still were worrying about the size of their sugary drinks, the Los Angeles City Council approved an ordinance banning plastic bags.

The new law will go into effect on January 1, 2014 at large stores that sell perishable foods and make more than $2 million per year—or that occupy retail space measuring more than 10,000 square feet. For smaller stores, the ban will be effective on July 1, 2014. Shoppers will have to pay 10 cents for the privilege of using a paper bag instead.


So, for now, Los Angeles holds the title of largest city in the nation to eliminate those pesky single-use grocery bags—which remain intact everlastingly at city dumps, threaten marine life, clog up storm drains and hang from tree branches like small white shrouds.

After the vote, Mark Daniels, chairman of the Washington, DC-based trade group, American Progressive Bag Alliance, noted that plastic bag makers and recyclers employ 30,800 people nationwide, including about 2,000 in California. "By voting to ban plastic bags and impose a 10-cent tax on paper bags, the Los Angeles City Council has sent a terrible message to manufacturers, small businesses and working families in the City of Los Angeles," Daniels said in a statement.

Of course, the City of Angels was not the first to pass such legislation–even in its own state. San Francisco claimed that title on March 27, 2007, when the city's Board of Supervisors approved a ground-breaking measure to outlaw plastic checkout bags at large supermarkets within six months and at chain pharmacies within a year—thus ridding the City by the Bay of an estimated 180 million plastic bags distributed to shoppers annually.

On February 28, 2012 the City Council of Laguna Beach approved an ordinance banning retail establishments from providing single-use, plastic carryout bags. Stores may provide recycled paper bags for a minimum charge of 10 cents. The ordinance became effective this year on January 1.

Other cities throughout the state that have passed similar laws include Carmel-by-the-Sea (July 2012), Carpentaria (March 2012), Fairfax (November 2008), Long Beach (May 2011), Malibu (May 2008) , Manhattan Beach (July 2008), Monterey (December 2011), Oakland (June 2007), Ojai (April 2012), Palo Alto (News - Alert) (March 2009), Pasadena (November 2011), Santa Cruz July 2012), Santa Monica (January 2011) and Sunnyvale (December 2011).

Seattle and Bellingham, Washington, as well as Portland, Oregon, have followed the West Coast trend. Seattle’s law was passed in December 2011. Paper bags still are allowed under the ordinance because the city has one of the highest rates in the nation for paper bag recycling—about 85 percent—while it recycles only about 13 percent of the 292 million plastic bags distributed in the city.

A Tipping Point

Indeed, American opinion seems to be reaching a tipping point.

Chicago’s City Council heard testimony on June 18 about a proposed citywide ban on plastic bags in stores—an ordinance not expected to gain traction anytime in the immediate future. Indeed, the plastic bag ordinance has been in the works in the Windy City since 2011, and is being sponsored by Alderman Proco "Joe" Moreno (1st Ward). According to Moreno, who recently wrote a blog for Huff Post Chicago, "Passage of the Plastic Bag Reduction Ordinance will not only help move our people away from these disposable relics of the old economy, but it will help Chicago take its rightful place as a leader of the sustainable and fiscally responsible new economy."

Moreno warned, “Despite what the proponents of the status-quo would like you to believe, these bags are not ‘free.’ Retailers purchase them for roughly 2 cents each and pass that cost onto customers. If each bag costs 2 cents and 3.7 million bags are used every day in our city, Chicagoans are paying approximately $74,000 a day —or over $27 million a year -- for these destructive products. “

In New York City on June 24, City Council Member Brad Lander (Brooklyn’s 39th District) invited constituents to join him—as well as proponents of a ban on bags, who included members of the Green Party of Brooklyn, Sierra Club, NRDC, No Impact Project, Citizens Committee for New York City, Sane Energy, NYC Friends of Clearwater, PlasticBagLaws.org, The Environmental Committee of the Park Slope Food Coop, BagItNYC and Center for Health, Environment & Justice (CHEJ)—to “an informative evening to learn about the massive environmental impact that single-use plastic bags have in New York City, and the New York City campaign to do something about it.”

Lander’s legislation is still being drafted, but it is meant to address single-use plastic carryout bags provided at checkout in a way that will work best in New York City.

Above, a poster about a New York City event, courtesy of The No Impact Project.

Last fall, on October 12, the Barrington Town Council in Rhode Island voted four to one to pass an ordinance proposed by the Barrington Conservation Commission to ban plastic bags in the town. The ordinance prohibited the distribution of disposable plastic checkout bags at the point of sale, effective January 1, 2012.

"We applaud the town council's decision to move forward with this initiative to protect the Bay and local waterways from plastic bag pollution," said Channing Jones, Program Associate with Environment Rhode Island, a citizen-based advocacy group. "Nothing we use for five minutes should pollute the Bay for future generations

And in Western Alaska, at least 30 villages/communities have banned plastic bags since 1998. The ban was enacted in response to plastic bag litter from dumps and ill-effects on Alaskan wildlife— including salmon and seals.

State of the Art

According to the Denver-based Bipartisan National Conference of State Legislatures, while no statewide ban, fee or tax has passed to date, Hawaii does have a de-facto statewide ban: All four counties in the state now ban non-biodegradable plastic bags at checkout, as well as paper bags that are not at least 40 percent recycled.  Kauai, Maui and Hawaii counties already enforce bans; Honolulu County retailers and shoppers have until July 1, 2015, to make the change.

In 2009, the District of Columbia enacted a law to ban the distribution of disposable, non-recyclable plastic carry-out bags and set a fee of 5 cents for distribution of all other disposable bags.

Currently, six states—California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Washington—are considering banning single-use plastic bags, with California’s proposed ban including paper and other single-use bags as well. Washington is considering legislation that would create rules for localities that choose to impose a ban or fee on plastic bags.




Edited by Rachel Ramsey


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