Greening Austin Daily

Update on Texas Plastic Bag Legislation

10th May, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments

I wrote earlier here about how a bill proposed in the house (and backed by Walmart), which would require grocery stores to provide recycling for plastic bags and sell reusable bags, but which would also preempt local governments from having stricter plastic bag regulations (such as an outright ban on the use of plastic bags).  The Texas Tribune had a nice update, focusing on how various residents of the city of Brownsville view their city’s ban on plastic bags.  The article also had this little excerpt (but you should check out the whole article here):

State Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay, who sponsored the Senate legislation, said that his bill was “not moving” right now, but that a House version had made more progress. Fraser said he did not intend to overturn policies of cities with existing bans. In the long run, he said, “we would like to wean people off the using of not only plastic but paper” and shift Texans toward reusable bags.

Walmart has backed Fraser’s legislation, which it sees as more workable than all-out bans.

“Walmart is committed to reducing its plastic bag waste, but we would rather see voluntary programs to reduce plastic bag use” instead of stricter policies like Brownsville’s, said Daniel Morales, a company spokesman in Texas.

….So Fraser says his legislation isn’t intended to overturn policies of cities with existing bans, yet that is exactly what it would do???…