The City of Seattle, heralded in environmental circles for its planned phase-out of styrofoam containers in restaurants and proposed fees on disposable shopping bags, will let the voters decided if the bag fees should go forward. Citizens and paid workers gathered well over the 14,000+ signatures needed to get the ban on the next eligible city election, which will not take place until the August 2009 primaries. The fee levy will be held in abeyance until the voters decide.
Passed in late July by the Seattle City Council and set to being January 1, 2009, the ban would levy a 20¢ fee on all bags used in grocery, convenience, and drugstores as a method of reducing landfill contributions. The city plans to give all households at least one reusable shopping bag to promote the legislation and encourage a smooth transition. The petition does not affect the additional legislation that will eventually eliminate styrofoam containers, then plastic containers and plastic utensils from restaurants in 2010.
Opponents of the legislation, led by the Coalition to Stop the Seattle Bag tax, a group formed by the American Chemistry Council, 7-11, and the Washington Food Industry, claim the fees put an undue burden on the poor in tough economic times, and also claim that recycling is a much more efficient way of reducing this targeted waste. The Coalition faces criticism by citizens who claimed that the signature gatherers, many paid by the ACC, lied to gain support.
Another City Bullied By the Plastic Bag Lobbyists
Wednesday, August 19th- Lobbyists for the plastic bag industry are broadcasting their ‘victory’ today over the failed 20-cent fee on free plastic and paper bags that was proposed in Seattle, WA. According to a press release on the AP, “The Progressive Bag Affiliates, an arm of the American Chemistry Council, spent $1.4 million to overturn the ordinance, the largest contribution to a local ballot measure in recent history.” And again, the plastic bag industry wins over the little city of Seattle who worked hard to raise $93,000 to support the bag tax. The bag tax is simply a way to encourage people to start reusing bags in a society that consumes way too much.
“Seattle was simply trying to do something good for the environment, but the multi-million dollar big company beat them down,” says Debbie Ward, creator of the EZ Grocery bag made of recycled plastics is a supporter of the ban on free plastic bags. Every city in the US that wants to do something about the massive overconsumption of free plastic bags (which by the way use up natural gas resources and pollute out waterways and oceans killing thousands of sea mammals every year) has to fork out money to try and fight the big plastic bag industry in order to reduce pollution and overconsumption. They simply don’t have enough money or resources to win.
What is the plastic bag industry’s argument? “If you take away the free bags, what are the poor people going to do?” Some say that cities should raise enough money to provide people with free reusable bags. Another argument by the lobbyists is that plastic bags are convenient and the fear is that people will get mad if you take them away. Whole Foods seems to be surviving and a representative at Walmart said that they could save thousands by getting rid of them and actually make money by selling the reusable ones.
Many believe that if the plastic bag industry really cared about the environment that they should be spending the $1.4 million they spent on overturning small town ordnances by coming up with a way to make biodegradable bags and reusing the billions of plastic bags that we send overseas for recycling. Not to mention the resources used to do that. But since they chose to sue little cities who want to reduce the pollution and other problems caused by the bags, there’s only one thing to do: get the stores to stop buying them!
Grocery stores, drug and convenience stores need to say no to the plastic bag industry and sell their own reusable bags. By doing so, they cannot be sued. They have the right to chose, just as people do. But because they give them to people, people take them and will continue to take them as long as they are there. Whole Foods did it. Trader Joes did it. And many other countries have simply banned the plastic bags all together.
There are studies being conducted right now about the great garbage patch, the rotating island of plastic in the north pacific ocean. They will come back with frightening data about all of the plastics that flow out to sea from our rivers, the dangers to our fish and the health of our oceans. Someday, this data will be accumulated with the ground water pollution from non-biodegradable plastics and the deaths of thousands of sea mammals every year to build a strong case about America’s overconsumption. Maybe then the President may do something about it. When there is no more fish, and no more birds because they eat the fish…maybe then?
What if Seattle spent their $93,000 working with a grocery store chain to get them to stop carrying plastic and give everyone reusable bags saying ‘Seattle Cares’. A city needs to make an example for the rest of the US and show the world how much they saved by doing it. One store needs to step up to the plate and make a difference. Look at all of the people who support the ones that do. Eventually, more grocery stores will stop buying the bags and save money which will in-turn reduce food prices. The planet may eventually prevail, but at what cost?
Steve Russell, vice president of plastics for the ACC, said in a statement reported in a press release on the Associated Press, “Like other cities that have looked at this issue, Seattle has chosen to continue to reuse plastic bags and expand recycling opportunities as the best way to fight litter and to protect the environment.”
Grocery stores such as Walmart spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on free plastic bags every year. They could actually make money if they sold more reusable bags. These plastic bags come in by the truckloads filling huge warehouses so that people can use them once and put them in the landfills. Most stores are recycling them now, but this means that the billions of bags used are now being shipped to China so that they can be recycled. This is because they don’t recycle them here in the US because it’s bad for the environment. This is a huge operation that is using up even more natural resources to ship the billions upon billions of America’s plastic bags to other countries because we do not recycle them in the US. Is this really the best way to help the environment?
Supporters like Ann Petersen support Seattle for talking about an outright ban. She states, “If the city bans plastic bags, that means that store owners will be fined for carrying them. Perhaps the city should raise another $90,000 to buy reusable bags for everyone and pass them out at the stores until the stores don’t have to buy plastic anymore.” She added, “It’s time for another approach. It’s time for the people of the earth to stand up against big corporations that are polluting the planet with toxins. It’s time for the people to speak and make a bigger difference than money grubbing corporations.”
Seattle votes down fee on plastic, paper bags
By PHUONG LE (AP) – 17 hours ago
SEATTLE — Seattle voters’ rejection of a 20-cent fee on plastic and paper bags represents a sound defeat for other efforts in U.S. cities to limit the use of the throwaway bags, plastics industry officials said Wednesday.
A referendum on an ordinance to charge the bag fee at grocery, drug and convenience stores was easily defeated in Tuesday’s primary in this liberal city — whose voters are known for taxing themselves to pay for parks, libraries, affordable housing and other causes.
“If they can’t do it there, they can’t do anywhere,” said Stephen Joseph, a San Francisco attorney with SavethePlasticBag.com, who has challenged several plastic bag bans in California.
The ordinance approved by city leaders was to start in January, but the plastics industry bankrolled a referendum to put the question to voters.
The Progressive Bag Affiliates, an arm of the American Chemistry Council, spent $1.4 million to overturn the ordinance, the largest contribution to a local ballot measure in recent history. Supporters raised about $93,000.
Heather Trim, a spokeswoman for the Seattle Green Bag campaign, said other cities will surely look to Seattle’s outcome for cues on how to proceed.
“They’re going to think twice because they know that the ACC is willing to spend as much as needed to defeat it,” said Trim, toxics program manager for People for Puget Sound.
But communities and citizens will also become better aware of the industry’s influence and arm themselves appropriately, she said.
Supporters argued the fee would encourage more reusable bags, cut down on pollution and waste, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The ubiquitous thin, cheap plastic bags have been blamed for littering streets, polluting oceans and harming marine life. The city’s ordinance targeted both paper and plastic sacks after city officials determined that paper bags were worse for the environment.
Adam Parmer, a spokesman for the Coalition to Stop the Seattle Bag Tax, said Seattle voters rejected the bag fee because it was unnecessary, costly and the wrong approach to changing behavior.
“In the middle of a recession, a tax to change people’s behavior isn’t the right approach. That’s the message that was clearly sent,” Parmer said.
Steve Russell, vice president of plastics for the ACC, said in a statement, “Like other cities that have looked at this issue, Seattle has chosen to continue to reuse plastic bags and expand recycling opportunities as the best way to fight litter and to protect the environment.”
Supporters here are now considering an outright ban, Brady Montz, Seattle chairman for the Sierra Club and a spokesman for the pro-fee group, said Wednesday. He noted that San Francisco considered a fee before becoming the first city in the nation to ban plastic bags in 2007.
“We’ll see far more cities going for a ban,” he said. “That’s probably the way the battle is going to shift.”
Despite strong industry opposition, some smaller communities such as Edmonds, Wash., north of Seattle, and Palo Alto, Calif., have succeeded in passing bans on plastic bags at retail stores in recent months.
David Lewis, executive director of Save the Bay, an Oakland, Calif., said many cities haven’t been deterred by aggressive lobbying by plastic bag makers.
“Even if a proposal like this fails, the problem continues to grow,” Lewis said. “That’s why I think, ultimately, the efforts to restrict and reduce bag use will be successful.”
But Joseph said other politicians, such as California lawmakers who are considering a 25-cent fee on plastic bags, should take note of the Seattle vote.
“It’s time they got the message that on this issue of plastic bags, the public simply doesn’t agree,” he said.
How sad. The only way now is to simply get stores to stop using plastic. They can’t sue them for that.
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Last week non-biodegradable plastic shopping bags were officially banned in Mexico City, making it the second largest metropolitan area in the Western Hemisphere to ban plastic bags. In March, Mexico City’s local assembly passed a law requiring stores in the world’s 11th largest city to provide biodegradable bags. There is a one-year grace period before authorities will impose sanctions. The grace period gives merchants time to come up with alternatives and for plastic bag producers to convert their factories.
“The challenge as always is how the law is applied,” said Beatriz Bugeda, the head of Citizen Observers of Environmental Vigilance. “You go to the markets and they put every fruit in a plastic bag. You can leave with 20 or 30 bags. More than waiting for penalties, I think the challenge is convincing citizens to change their habits. We have to go back to our grandmothers’ habits.”