The voters won in Seattle plastic bag battle but the war isn't over

"Where Recycling Plastic Bags is Mandatory"

by

Kate Galbraith

August 19th, 2009

The New York Times

Earlier today I posted about how, despite Seattle voters’ rejection of a 20-cent tax on plastic and paper bags, the bag wars are likely to continue.

After publication, the American Chemistry Council (which represents plastic bag makers and bankrolled the successful Seattle opposition) sent me an e-mail message with some data I had requested about which localities have enacted mandatory bag recycling legislation.

Delaware’s governor signed legislation this week requiring plastic bag recycling in the state (meaning that large stores must have bag recycling stations). Similar legislation has passed in California (2006), New York (2008) and Rhode Island (2008).

Several cities have also adopted mandatory bag recycling policies: Tuscon, Chicago, Red Bank, N.J., and San Juan Capistrano, Calif. (New York City and several counties in New York state also moved last year to require bag recycling, but this has now been preempted by statewide rules.)

The group also provided a list of places where plastic bag feesbans or taxes have been enacted:

1. San Francisco, Calif., bag ban (2007)
2. Malibu, Calif. (2008)
3. Maui County, Hawaii (2008)
4. Westport, Conn. (2008)
5. Fairfax, Calif. (2008)
6. Palo Alto, Calif. (2009)
7. North Carolina Outer Banks (Currituck, Dare and Hyde Counties) (2009)
8. Edmonds, Wash. (2009)
9. Bethel, Alaska (2009)
10. District of Columbia (2009)

As for the Seattle vote, “most Seattle residents already reuse plastic bags, and many also are aware that they can recycle them,” said Steve Russell, a vice president of plastics for the American Chemistry Council, in a statement.


Seattle bag battle

Seattle bag battle

Will blood be drawn on this issue? I still think a compromise could be made.

"Seattle is front line in grocery bag fee fight"

by

Phuong Le

August 14th, 2009

Google News

SEATTLE - Leaders of this famously green city last year passed the nation's first grocery bag fee, and other cities around the nation quickly followed.

But the plastics industry has been fighting back, bringing lawsuits, aggressively lobbying lawmakers and bankrolling a referendum in Seattle to overturn the 20-cent charge. The measure goes before voters Tuesday, and polls show marginal support after the industry spent $1.4 million, outspending supporters about 15-to-1.

If the bag fee fails in an eco-conscious city like Seattle, observers say, it will be a tough sell elsewhere.

"This amount of money is about bullying public officials," said Rob Gala, a spokesman for Seattle Green Bag campaign, which has raised about $93,000 to back the fee. "They're trying to send a message to elected officials across the country who are thinking about similar measures."

In California, bag manufacturers successfully sued Oakland and Manhattan Beach after those cities banned plastic bags. The bag makers complained that officials didn't prepare a report detailing the environmental impact, such as the increased use of paper sacks.

"We've seen lobbying and blatant attempts to intimidate cities," said David Lewis, executive director of Save The Bay in Oakland. He likened the efforts to the tobacco industry's campaign to fight smoking bans.

"They're trying to force an expense on a city and hope that cities would drop their bag ban effort rather than have to pay from an environmental impact report," Lewis said.

The lawsuits are working, said Stephen Joseph, an attorney representing SaveThePlasticBag.com, which has sued Palo Alto, Calif., Los Angeles County and Manhattan Beach in the past year. The group includes California-based Crown Poly Inc., Command Packaging and Elkay Plastics Co.

While Manhattan Beach is appealing a court ruling in favor of the industry, city attorney Bob Wadden said he's heard from other cities that fear being sued if they pursue a similar ban.

Several states from Colorado to Texas to Virginia debated bag bans or fees this year, but no statewide ban or fee has been enacted. Washington, D.C., passed a 5-cent fee on paper or plastic bags, and the Outer Banks region in North Carolina banned plastic bags this year. But New York City dropped a proposed 5-cent bag fee in June, and Philadelphia rejected a plastic bag ban.

In Seattle, the Progressive Bag Affiliates, an arm of Virginia-based American Chemistry Council, has given the bulk of money to defeat the bag fee.

"Seattle residents have a right to know the facts about new taxes that will impact them, and public outreach is expensive," the council said in a statement explaining its contributions.

Seattle's fee is unusual in that it also covers paper bags, which the city determined are worse for the environment than plastic. Targeting only plastic bags, the city said, would push people to use paper, resulting in greater greenhouse gases.

The industry has latched on to that point in fighting ordinances elsewhere. Most measures have targeted only plastic bags, nearly 88 billion of which were sold in the U.S. in 2003, according to the latest figures from the International Trade Commission.

Plastic bag supporters say paper bags are more costly, take more energy and water to make, and release methane - a greenhouse gas - when they decompose. But plastic bags are recycled at a lower rate than paper sacks, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, and they take hundreds of years to break down in landfills.

About two-thirds of the 360 million paper and plastic bags Seattleites use each year end up in the garbage, according to Seattle Public Utilities, even though the city accepts plastic bags in its curbside recycling program. Many places don't because the bags get tangled in recycling equipment.

Seattle officials say a fee would encourage more reusable bags, but Adam Parmer, a spokesman for Coalition to Stop the Bag Tax, said it's the wrong approach to changing behavior. He and the plastic industry support increased recycling.

Two groups representing independent and chain supermarkets say they're neutral and want voters to decide.

If the measure passes, Hanh Nguyen, 49, a Seattle social worker, says she would bring her own bags to avoid the fee. But she dislikes the charge, saying she already pays enough for other things like gasoline and food.

"I understand that it's supposed to help the environment, but still," she said.

Maggie Cambridge brought three reusable bags to Safeway recently but needed six more to carry her groceries home. It would cost her $1.20 under the ordinance, she said, "a hardship" on her fixed income.

"Everybody needs to be responsible, but charging isn't the way," said Cambridge, who is retired and plans to vote against the measure.

A telephone poll conducted last week by a research center at the University of Washington found 41 percent of 600 likely voters supported the measure. The poll had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Under the Seattle ordinance, small stores would keep the entire 20-cent fee. Stores with gross sales of more than $1 million a year keep 5 cents, and the rest goes to city recycling and environmental education programs.

"It's only 20 cents," said Nic Johnston, 24, a Seattle waiter who prefers reusable bags for their durability and convenience in toting other things, like his gym clothes. "It's going to stop people from using too many bags. I'm sure the fee will encourage me to bring my own."

Supporters point to success in Ireland, where a 15-euro-cent (21-U.S.-cent) bag tax in 2002 cut the use of disposable bags by 90 percent. That tax went up to 22 euro cents in 2007 after bag use crept up.

In San Francisco, the first U.S. city to ban plastic bags, officials say all 140 grocery and convenience stores are complying with the 2007 ordinance, saving about 100 million bags a year.


American Chemistry Council fights a proposed Seattle plastic bag fee

Plastic bag issue--heating up

Plastic bag issue--heating up

Looks like things are getting nasty now.

From seattlepi.com...

"Seattle bag tax wouldn't reduce garbage"

Seattle's proposed 20-cent fee on disposable shopping bags would reduce the city's yearly garbage output by just .0014 percent, according to an analysis by a business-friendly think tank.

Proponents of the bag tax, the fate of which will be decided by voters Aug. 18, say the study is "a complete farce."

The Washington Policy Center said in its review that bag fee supporters estimate the levy would reduce the amount of garbage Seattle sends to an Oregon landfill by 50 loaded railroad cars a year. However Seattle generates about 100 railroad cars of garbage per day, six days a week. According to the American Chemistry Council, the lobbying group for the plastics industry which is spending more than $1 million to defeat the Seattle bag tax, plastic grocery and retail bags make up less than .5 percent of solid municipal waste in the country.

"Assuming the bag tax policy performs as supporters promise, it would reduce the yearly amount of garbage produced by Seattle by .0014 percent," says the WPC analysis.

Rob Gala, spokesman for the Seattle Green Bag campaign, dismissed the WPC study.

"There's no substantive analysis behind their claims," he said.

Seattle Public Utilities says people in the city throw away 360 million paper and plastic shopping bags each year - equal to 8,5000 tons of greenhouse gases. Of that number, about 240 million bags end up in the garbage - 4 percent of all residential waste by volume, SPU says.

In July of 2008 Seattle was one of the first major American cities to discourage the use of paper and plastic shopping bags by requiring grocery, drug and convenience stores to charge 20 cents per bag. The new rule was to take effect Jan. 1, but a coalition funded largely by the American Chemistry Council gathered enough signatures to keep the ordinance from going into effect. That caused the City Council to ultimately ask city residents now they felt about "green" bag fees in next month's election.

Proponents of the bag fee say similar programs in Ireland have cut plastic and paper bag use by 90 percent. But critics say the fee is unnecessary and just one more tax placed on a tax-weary Seattle populace.

Recent polling suggests people in Seattle are against the idea of the disposable bag fee.

American Chemistry Council fights a proposed Seattle plastic bag fee

American Chemistry Council fights a proposed Seattle plastic bag fee

Why is the American Chemistry Council against this proposal? Granted, twenty cents is a bit steep but surely a compromise can be established.

"American Chemistry Council gives $500,000 to stop bag fee"

The American Chemistry Council's latest contribution of $500,000 to the campaign against Seattle's proposed 20-cent fee on disposable shopping bags is one of the city's largest ballot-measure donations in recent history.

by

Marc Ramirez

Seattle Times

The American Chemistry Council has provided $500,000 to help fight Seattle's plan to charge consumers 20 cents for disposable shopping bags.

Adam Parmer, spokesman for the campaign to turn back the Seattle ordinance, said the money given over the weekend will pay for radio ads and direct-mail efforts against Referendum 1, which goes before voters Aug. 18.

It's the single largest contribution to a local ballot-measure in recent history, according to Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission staff.

The money comes from the Progressive Bag Affiliates of the Virginia-based American Chemistry Council, the prime backers of the Coalition to Stop the Bag Tax, which last year gave the campaign about $239,000.

The campaign began placing anti-bag-fee ads on the Internet over the weekend, Parmer said, and radio ads should start airing this week.

Mayor Greg Nickels proposed and the City Council approved the bag fee to encourage the use of reusable bags and reduce waste. The ordinance was put on hold when opponents gathered enough signatures to put the measure to a public vote.

If voters approve the ordinance, Seattle would become the first U.S. city to target plastic and paper.

Backers of the ordinance said their opponent's cash boost does not alter their plans.

"It's what we were anticipating from the outset," said Rob Gala of the Seattle Green Bag Campaign, which has so far raised about $65,000. "We see that this vote is essentially about one of the world's largest polluters telling a city what it can and cannot do in terms of waste reduction."

The $500,000 deposit is the largest to a Seattle ballot measure in at least a decade. It exceeds two donations of $400,000-plus in 2006 to Seattle Citizens for Free Speech from strip-club operators who fought successfully to repeal the city's strip-club ordinance.

Still, the anti-bag-fee campaign's total of nearly $750,000 falls short of the Free Speech campaign's total for 2006 of $861,000, as well as the anti-monorail Yes on I-83 campaign's total for 2004 of $892,000.