Palo Alto, Calif., and Edmonds, Wash., have joined a small but growing list of communities that will be enacting bans on plastic carryout bags. But all eyes in the next two weeks will be on Seattle, where the American Chemistry Council has spent nearly $1.4 million in an effort to convince voters to reject a 20-cent fee on single-use grocery bags.
That compares to $64,000 that has been raised by the Seattle Green Bag campaign, the primary group supporting the referendum to reduce the estimated 360 million bags used in the city annually.
“The ACC is attempting to intimidate policy makers nationwide by demonstrating their ability to overwhelm local grassroots,” said Brady Montz, chairman of the Seattle chapter of the Sierra Club and spokesman for Seattle Green Bag. “This level of spending is indicative of the disregard that they have for democracy and the public interest worldwide.”
The financial stakes in Seattle ratcheted up between July 17 and July 22 when ACC, through its Progressive Bag Affiliates unit, made contributions totaling $1.05 million to the Coalition to Stop the Seattle Bag Tax. Much of that money is expected to go for radio, Internet and newspaper ads and direct-mail efforts.
That dwarfs the $20,000 given to the coalition by its second-largest contributor, convenience store chain 7-Eleven Inc.
“[We want] to ensure that all Seattle residents are aware of the Aug. 18 vote and the efficacy of recycling as an alternative to a tax,” PBA said in a statement issued by the Arlington, Va.-based ACC.
A July 17 survey, conducted by KING 5/Survey USA, showed that 51 percent of Seattle residents are against the fee and 42 percent are in favor. Critically, among voters 50 and older — who tend to have high turnouts in primary elections — 57 percent are against the fee.
Seattle’s fee would apply to all grocery stores, drug stores and convenience stores. If voters approve, Seattle would be the third major U.S. city to restrict plastic bags: San Francisco banned plastic bags in 2007, and Washington, D.C., in June approved a 5-cent tax on all paper and plastic carryout bags at grocery stores, drug stores, and retail food establishments that will go into effect Jan. 1.
Earlier this summer, efforts to enact a 25-cent fee on plastic carryout bags in California failed.
“Recycling is a practical, working solution for reducing waste from shopping bags that is go for the environment and won’t tax struggling families,” said Steve Russell, managing director of ACC’s plastics division, in a prepared statement. “We want Seattle residents to know that many area grocers already offer programs that allow shoppers to bring back their plastic shopping bags, dry cleaning bags, newspaper bags and many types of product wraps for recycling.”
Edmonds, a town of 40,000 on the Puget Sound that houses a marine sanctuary, approved a bag ban on July 28. It will apply to all retail stores, but is not scheduled to go into effect until Aug. 27, 2010, so that stores can “work through existing inventory,” and the city and stores can “start an educational/public awareness campaign, and to make sure we have as smooth of a transition as possible,” said council member Strom Peterson, who spearheaded the ban.
Palo Alto’s ban, initially approved March 30, will go into effect as scheduled Sept. 18, because the city reached an out-of-court settlement on July 28 with the Save The Plastic Bag Coalition, which had sued to stop the ban.
Stephen Joseph, a lawyer for the coalition, said it was not worth the effort to spend as many as two years in litigation, because three of Palo Alto’s seven grocers already had voluntarily stopping using plastic bags before the ban passed.
“The ordinance only covers four stores,” Joseph said. “In return for being allowed to keep the ban at those four stores, Palo Alto agreed not to ban bags at any more stories without doing a full [environmental impact report]. That is a good deal for us,” he said, as the city had planned to extend its ban to pharmacies and other retailers.
The Save The Plastic Bag Coalition also has a lawsuit against Los Angeles County to prevent a planned ban — which still must be approved — next year. Joseph expects the court to decide on that lawsuit in October.
In addition to Palo Alto and Edmonds, three coastal counties on the Outer Banks in North Carolina and two small Alaskan towns have enacted bans on plastic bags in the past four weeks, bringing the number of bans in the United States to 11.
Westport, Conn., and the California cities of San Francisco, Fairfax and Malibu also have bans on plastic carryout bags. A ban on plastic bags in Manhattan Beach, Calif., that covered 217 stores and restaurants was overturned, pending an appeal.
The ban in the N.C. counties of Hyde, Dare and Currituck goes into effect Sept. 1 and applies to all single-use plastic disposal carryout bags at retail stores have 5,000 square feet or more, as well as retailers operating in those counties that have five or more stores in the state. Reusable plastic bags with handles that are 2.25 mils or greater in thickness can still be used. The law does not apply to plastic bags that are used to wrap meat, fish, poultry or produce.
The plastic bag ban in Bethel, Alaska, approved July 14, will go into effect in Sept. 1, 2010 in the town of 5,700 and applies to all retail establishment and food vendors. Bethel also banned the use of polystyrene cups, bowls, plates, trays and containers. The Alaskan town of Hooper Bay also approved a ban on plastic bags that went into effect this month.
But the largest stakes right now for the industry clearly are in Seattle, where the Stop the Seattle Bag Tax Coalition is reminding voters that a city survey from 2007 found that residents are opposed to a tax and that 91 percent of residents said they recycled plastic bags.
The coalition’s radio campaign features a clearly irritated couple lamenting the possibility of a tax, more bureaucracy because the law would create two full-time jobs, and potential exemptions for big-box retailers.
“I’m all for recycling,” said one of the people in the ad, “but do we really need a new tax to protect the environment? Most of us already reuse or recycle these bags. A cleaner Seattle is what we all want, but a tax on grocery bags isn’t what we need in this economy.”
The coalition’s Web site points out that nine types of paper and plastic bags are exempted under the law, and that stores with less than $1 million in revenue will get to keep the fees collected, rather than deposit the money into the state’s environmental fund.
In addition, the coalition said it would cost Seattle $1.4 million to operate the program, another $1 million to buy and hand out reusable shopping bags to residents in the first year, and another $150,000 to fund a public education campaign.
“Why would we need a taxpayer-funded program to tell us to reuse and recycle bags when 90 percent of us do that already — voluntarily?” the coalition said in a statement. “It doesn’t make economic sense. |
