and Styrofoam Ban
California state law (AB 2449) requires grocery stores and pharmacies with more than 10,000 square feet of retail space to provide bins for the collection and recycling of plastic shopping bags. Yet independent studies have concluded that public awareness of the legislation remains low and consumers often have a hard time finding recycling bins or are unaware that they exist.
In response, the state launched the 'Got your Bags?' program as part of its larger 'Keep California Beautiful' campaign. Initially, the "Got Your Bags?" program emerged as a grassroots effort between the Mariposa County Public Works Department (MCPWD) and the Mariposa County Unified School District. MCPWD developed and stenciled a "Got your Bags?" slogan and logo on local supermarket parking lots, which was incorporated into a recycling lesson for summer school students.
Christine Flowers-Ewing, Executive Director of Keep California Beautiful, stated "Our goal with this campaign is to give consumers that extra reminder so they translate good intentions into action."
Description of Assembly Bill 87 - Proposed in January 2009
AB 87/SB 531 was introduced by Mike Davis (D) on January 5, 2009. Existing law requires retailers
to provide an in-store recycling bin, maintain records for collection transport, and recycling of
plastic carryout bags, and requires plastic bag manufacturers develop educational materials to
encourage reduce, reuse, and recycle principles. If passed,
the new bill would impose a 25 cent fee for every single-use carryout bag distributed to shoppers.
The tax would apply to all paper, plastic, and biodegradable bags and would go into effect on July
1, 2010. A Bag Pollution Fund would be established in the state treasury and proceeds would fund
administrative costs, environmental programs, and payments to cities and counties to reduce bag litter.
Description of Assembly Bill 68 - Proposed in December 2008
AB 68 was introduced by Assemblymember Julia Brownley in December 2008. This legislation would
also impose a 25 cent fee on all single-use carryout bags provided to shoppers. The State Board of
Equalization would administer collection fees and collected funds would go to programs related to
single-use carryout bags and reusable bag giveaway programs.
Description of Assembly Bill 2058 - Proposed in February 2008
On February 19, 2008, Lloyd Levine introduced
Assembly Bill 2058, which initially aimed to improve the infrastructure to collect and recycle bags
from statewide grocery and retail stores. The bill has been amended on
3/28,
5/5,
5/23 and
6/30.
The March 28th version of AB 2058 introduced a 15 cent fee per bag on all disposable plastic bags. The per-bag fee was raised to 25 cents on May 5th. By passing this legislation, California became the first state to require large grocery and retail stores to establish in-store recycling programs which provide customers with the opportunity to return clean plastic carryout bags to that store.
On August 7th, the California Senate Appropriations Committee failed to pass the latest version of AB 2058, which was reintroduced on June 30th. This update would prohibit a store from providing plastic carryout bags to customers on and after July 1, 2011 unless the store demonstrates an increased diversion rate of 70% in the number of plastic carryout bags provided by the store during a specified period.
Opposition to Bag Tax Legislation
The Progressive Bag Affiliates of the American Chemistry Council estimates that the latest version of AB 2058 would have placed a
$4.75
billion tax on grocery shoppers, which translates to upwards of $400 a year to the average family's grocery
bill. Critics of a bag fee claim:
A bag tax is also particularly upsetting for small business owners that deal with volumnous amounts of small-dollar sales transactions. The majority of California residents aren't thrilled about the tax either. According to a statewide survey of 700 registered voters conducted by the American Chemistry Council between June 28th and July 2nd of last year, 58% opposed the bag fee, 38% supported it, and 4% didn't know. These numbers are nearly identical to a Seattle survey conducted by Seattle Public Utilies in December 2007.
As the economy continues to worsen, some say now is not the time for additional taxes.
Others believe there is no convenient time for preserving the environment and action is imperative.
And yet another camp wants bag tax proceeds to fund projects that need it more than ever in light of California's
$42 billion budget deficit.
Regardless of the motives behind the issue, no state has imposed a statewide fee or ban yet.
For now, it remains a regionalized matter left up to individual cities and counties.
According to the Plastic Bag Reduction Ordinance 81-07, which went into effect on November 20, 2007, supermarkets with gross annual sales exceeeding $2 million and retail pharmacies with over five locations within San Francisco are prohibited from providing bags that are not made of compostable plastic, recyclable paper or any reusable bag of any material.
Although statewide plastic bag reycling programs are spreading across states like New York City and are being considered in Colorado and Texas, San Francisco remains the only city in the nation that currently enforces an outright ban on plastic bags.
...or Excess Baggage?
Last year, Use Less Stuff released A Qualitative Study of Grocery Bag Use
in San Francisco, which summarized findings of 25 grocery store checks in order to determine the effectiveness of the
Plastic Bag Recycling Act of 2006 (AB 2449).
Results suggested that environmental gains resulting from the ban were nonexistent at best and the ban
likely did more harm than good. Despite these counterintuitive findings associated with a bag ban, it was found that there was
large public support and awareness behind the value of recycling programs.
Key conclusions drawn from the report include:
The San Francisco Weekly has also been studying the plastic bag ban. Review of several life-cycle analyses from the past two decades reveals that "again and again, paper bags were found to require more energy to create and transport, emit more greenhouse gases, generate more water and air pollution, consume far more fresh water, produce much more solid waste, and produce markedly more eutrophication of water bodies (a condition in which an excess of nutrients, often nitrogen, leads to choking algae infestations)."
While highly visible, plastic bags occupy a tiny amount landfill space by volume and weight. A 2003 survey commissioned by the California Integrated Waste Management Board revealed that plastic bags comprise roughly 0.4% of the state's waste stream, with paper bags taking up about 1%. Despite feel-good motives behind banning plastic, there is simply no evidence showing paper to be more beneficial.
Many argue that the plastic bag ban will cause customers to switch to paper bags. Plastic bags require about 70% less energy to manufacture and produce half the amount of greenhouse gas emissions than paper bags. A bag ban would also hinder statewide recycling efforts outlined in AB2449, which sets annual benchmarks on plastic bag recycling programs and may lead to a ban if those requirements are not met. An added impediment to Palo Alto’s bag ban is the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition— an industry group that filed a legal suit against the city in April 2009 for failing to conduct a proper environmental study in advance. The suit was settled out of court and effectively postponed the city's quest to expand its bag ban.
Meanwhile, Palo Alto grocers are gearing up for the ban to take full effect on September 19th, 2009 and have stopped ordering plastic bags. Surveys by city staff found that reusable bag use doubled from 9 percent to 18 percent between 2008 and 2009.
The city is poised to impose a plastic bag ban if supermarkets do not meet specified benchmarks by 2013.
Though the bag tax has not been decided on yet, business owners like Long Nguyen are already collecting thousands of signatures from customers in an attempt to communicate to city officals that "your voters don't want this." Nguyen owns a 7-Eleven store where the average transaction is about $5. If a bag fee were in place, customers who forget their own bag will see their bill rise by 5%-- a move that would hurt his already struggling business.
Solana Beach is also finding new ways to recycle plastic bags. In August 2008, the city became the first in the county to directly contract with a manufacturer to use polyethylene bags in recycled products. The move is unique because at the moment, few, if any, cities provide plastic bags directly to a manufacturer. Not only does this move keep plastic bags out of landfills, but it also cuts out the middleman (usually a waste hauler) and comes at no cost to taxpayers.
It is this writer's hope that places looking into a bag tax or ban will explore similar alternatives which establish infrastructure to promote recycling efforts. After all, financially penalizing people and making them feel guilty for using a plastic bag-- that now requires 70% less plastic than 20 years ago-- is not an effective way to save the environment. For those who truly wish to minimize their plastic footprint, the solution is as simple as the 3R's: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.
©2008 The Northwest Economic Policy Seminar - All Rights Reserved