Austin may ban most plastic, paper bags - Blog 2

Austin may ban most plastic, paper bags

--Alberto Martinez/AMERICAN-STATESMAN 

The City of Austin might enact one of the broadest bag bans in the nation and prohibit disposable paper and plastic bags at all checkout counters starting in January 2016.

 The City Council ask the city staffers to begin writing a plastic bag ban back in August, to determine whether the ban should apply to all retailers and to paper bags also.  The ban drafted would apply to retailers big and small and encompass single-user paper and plastic. This would also ban such bags at City of Austin facilities, at events held on city property and sponsored events.

Bob Gedert, director of Austin Resource Recovery, the city department who wrote the draft ban and handles trash collection and recycling indicated that Austin would be one of only a few U.S. cities to ban both plastic and paper bags.  More than two dozen U.S. cities have enacted bag bans since 2007, and most prohibit plastic as well as imposing a fee on paper bags

Retailers would be able to offer reusable bags, defined as those that had handles and made of fabric or durable materials or are thick paper or plastic bag with some recycled content.  After reading  Reusable Shopping Bags: Safe?  on sanitation of recycle bags, one would have to ask if this is for the better or worse.  Should we as consumers have an option to pay for paper or plastic bags?  

There are several exemptions for the ban, such as restaurants carryout bags, bags for wine and beer, dry cleaning bags, newspaper delivery bags and bags that hold meat, produce or pharmaceuticals.

            The Texas Retailers Association criticized the proposal.  They express their concerns that the citizens of Austin will reportedly have the most expensive and regressive bag tax in the entire country. Ronnie Volkening, the president and CEO fears that “Families and lower income citizens will be disproportionately affected by the rising costs.  

            The impact of the proposed draft ordinance on current voluntary recycling programs for plastic bags can only be negative.   The single-use carryout bags will be used only upon request and a charge of 25 cents per bag to the customer as of January 1, 2013.  The city would get 22.5 cents of every 25 cents retailers charge for single-use bags from 2013 to 2016. The retailers would keep the rest. The city would use the funds to promote the use of reusable carryout bags, according to the draft ordinance. The full ban would begin January 1, 2016.

Bag Monster vs. Austin City Council

 The importance of this article to all Americans would be to determine if you would like to live in a world of Bag Monsters or supporting the ban of plastic bags in order to improve the environment.