Would You Support a Plastic Bag Ban?
The Olympia City Council this week voted to support a proposed ban on plastic bags in Thurston County.
According to an article in The Olympian, the Olympia council made their decision for a number of reasons, including the difficulty of recycling the non-biodegrable bags. Only five to nine percent of Olympians recycle their bags, most incorrectly using curbside recycling. Those bags can tangle recycling machinery, costing time and money in the recycling process.
Thurston County hasn’t passed the ban yet, but they’re certainly thinking seriously about it. Seattle banned the plastic bag in July of last year.
Could Tacoma be next for the ban? Do you like the idea, or would they have to pry your plastic bags out of your cold, dead fingers?
Filed under: Green Tacoma, Legislation, Elsewhere, Olympia
20 comments
S Stephen Battey January 17, 2013
I am not opposed to a ban, it will be an excuse for me to stop forgetting my reusable ones at home every single time I go to the grocery store.
N nwcolorist January 17, 2013
There’s no more important issues to work on?
T talus January 17, 2013
Yes, plus a $0.20 fee on paper bags.
P Paper or plastic January 17, 2013
We should we allow places like McDonalds and Wallmart charge customers .20 per bag? Don’t they have enough $$
Also, unlike Olympia, Tacoma does recycle plastic bags. I would be interested in what the REUSE rate is. I would say 100% of all bags that enter my house are either used as trash can liners, for pet waste or are recycled.
Today’s “plastic bags” are not petroleum based and have a faster biodegradability rating than paper.
J Jim C January 17, 2013
I’m not opposed to the ban either, but connecting it with a tax collected on any other bags (in other words, mandating that businesses collect a fee to give out paper bags – businesses wouldn’t decide to do this on their own, derr) would sink the proposal in my book as a naked revenue grab. Paper recycles, so other than collecting money what is the justification?
J James M January 17, 2013
I would support the ban.
A Anna January 17, 2013
I don’t support a ban – I use plastic grocery bags as garbage bags and to pick up after my pup and don’t want to have to start buying them!
W Walt Hively January 17, 2013
NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don’t support any ban.
F fredo January 17, 2013
If I buy a 100-count box of glad wrap sandwich bags at Costco, I’ll have to pay a $20.00 tax? Doubt if I would be willing to pay that.
B backtoTtown January 17, 2013
We’ve been living in Seattle for almost two decades and are moving back to Tacoma next month. Having lived through the whole bag hubbub here, I can honestly say it is a non-issue. We use the bags from the newspaper for pet waste. We don’t line the small trash cans around the house, just the large, under sink can. If someone forgets their bag at a store, it’s a 5 cent fee for a paper bag. Overall, we are bringing a lot less paper or plastic into the house, so I think it’s a reasonable policy.
S Stu January 18, 2013
No ban.
Why not promote a VOLUNTARY solution to reducing bag usage instead?
Go beyond asking “paper or plastic?”.
Train checkers to modify the question: “paper, plastic, or no bag?”. Or even: “bag or no bag?”
Most checkers automatically stuff every item into a bag, even when some purchases clearly don’t need a bag at all. And most people are either not tuned in enough or are too sheep-like to speak up and say “no bag” on their own.
Store owners/operators will likely support this simple change because it deals with a problem in a proactive, PR-friendly way at little to no cost to them. In fact, they will likely save $ by reducing bag use without angering customers. It’s a win-win for all.
Enough with government overregulation. Encourage a simple behavior change and reduce waste voluntarily.
O okobojicat January 18, 2013
@Stu
A $.05 is in fact a voluntary behavior. You speak of enouraging “simple behavior change” well, the encouragement is a $.05 tax on a bags. I think $.20 a bag is vastly too much. Many people already carry reusable bags in their car, but often enough, forget to bring them into the store. I know I often make it through the doors at hte old Fred Meyer and then realize the bags are in the trunk. I don’t go back and get them, but for $.20 (4 bags x $.05) I would.
@fredo…that’s absurd. Do you pay that extra fee when you shop in Seattle? No.
@nwcolorist…have you looked at our waterfront? Have you seen the empty lots that have bags strewn across them and look shabby and dirty? A severe reduction in bags would help out immensely in removing those blights from our city.
T Tacoma Thinker January 19, 2013
I support it – watch Bag It. If only a fraction is based in truth banning plastic bags is a smart first step.
http://www.bagitmovie.com/
D Duke January 19, 2013
Tacoma does not have a litter problem and it certainly does not have a plastic bag problem. This has become a battle between science and ideology. Bag bans are no more than eco-fads. Recent studies show 100% recyclable FDA approved plastic bags are easily the more sustainable choice than the other alternatives: a spike in paper production or foreign oil produced reusables. Bans hurt small business and non profits while doing nothing to change the environmental dynamic. The amount of resources needed to produce and recycle paper far outweigh plastic. Transportation costs alone are 7 times greater for paper. You need to use a foreign oil produced reusable 131 times to equal the same environmental impact as one plastic bag. Don’t fall for the anti-bag propaganda. Science should be the determining factor, not a feel good solution that is ultimately harmful to our business climate and our local ecology.
R Rhod January 21, 2013
Thank you Duke, I agree completely.
J Jacxon Stone January 21, 2013
Support this ban – - it won’t hurt small businesses, unless that’s what you call the huge petro-chemical companies. Comparing plastic to paper also isn’t the issue since we should eliminate paper bags, too. Do want other countries have been doing for centuries: get reusable net and canvas bags and use them! Common sense should be the determining factor.
E Eric Williams January 22, 2013
I’m conflicted. I use plastic bags for my trash and other packing and such things. Instead of that, a lot of “reusablers” (yes I made that word up) just buy thicker 1st use plastic trash bags, ziplocks, all kinds of things that I don’t use because I use the mostly recycled plastic fiber grocery bags. I am an unemployed college student so don’t shop that much so maybe if I was buying groceries for 4 I would use more and this wouldn’t be productive, who knows.
M Mofo from the Hood January 25, 2013
The grocery clerk question “Paper or Plastic?” was a laughable experience at one time. Up to that point, shopper’s groceries were either packed in brown paper bags or in cardboard boxes that had been emptied of their brand product to stock the store shelves. When the “Paper or Plastic” craze started I had no idea why I as a shopper had to decide how the store employee should do his job.
Nowadays whenever I go to Safeway, the clerk packs my groceries in plastic bags—no question asked. Plastic bags have been normalized. They’re a tradition. Some would say, a civil right.
So now there’s talk about banning plastic bags and going back to an earlier established tradition. But if we go back, if we can go back, there may be a new tax to pay.
My question to the assorted New Age councilmen and hobby lawyers is this: What’s it going to take to keep you power drunks out of my wallet?
N Nila January 25, 2013
I think it is for the best and it wouldn’t do any harm. This is the norm in a lot of places and it’s about time we step up to the plate to become more environmentally friendly as a community. What about a fee being charged for those using bags there at the counter? Bag = .5c etc… I think that would encourage many folks to keep reusable shopping bags in the boot of their vehicle.
Also, there is a grocery store that’s a German company that opened here in the USA and they chain the shopping carts together. Once you insert a quarter it releases the chain but your quarter is inside the little box. In order to get your quarter back, you must bring you cart back into the line and attach it to the chain again. It really keeps people motivated to return their own cart and it keeps them from rolling all over the parking lot. Just a thought…
S Stella August 20, 2013