Greening Austin Daily

Examples of Other Cities with Plastic Bag Bans

26th October, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments

The Statesman had a recent article I was reading today about how some other cities have implemented a plastic bag ban.  It’s pretty interesting to see how cities in Texas, California, Oregon, etc. have handled this.  Below is a summary of what the Statesman found by interviewing representatives from cities across the U.S., but you can read the article to find details about specific cities:

Cities and environmental groups say the bags clog drainage systems, jam recycling machinery, are ingested by marine life and take eons to decompose in landfills. Plastic bag producers counter that the bags are convenient, reusable and can be recycled into other bags or materials such as decking.

The American-Statesman spoke to officials in a dozen cities about the scope of their bans and whether they’ve been effective. A few patterns emerged:

• The bans are varied, some applying to all stores, and some covering only large retailers.

• Several of the cities have also imposed a fee on paper bags, which some say take more fuel and energy to make and transport than plastic.

• Most cities put their bans in effect months or years after passing them, to give retailers time to phase out their stock of plastic bags and retrain employees.

• Several cities did outreach and education efforts, such as airing radio ads and giving away reusable bags, to alert customers to the change.

• Because many of the bans are less than a year or two old, there isn’t much data available on whether they’ve worked well.

On Monday there was a public meeting for Austinites to comment on the proposed ban, but this even more recent Statesman article notes that before that meeting, Mayor Lee Leffingwell stated that “The decision to (have a ban) has basically been made,”  and that “[W]e want to do everything we can to minimize the impact. We don’t want to create a hardship.”

City Council staff should have a proposal ready soon for a December or January vote by City Council.