Plastic bags in crosshairs
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As Westport stores ready for a ban on plastic bags in mid-March, a town representative in the Connecticut General Assembly has renewed a call for a statewide ban, even as a colleague proposes a bag-use tax instead.
The Westport Representative Town Meeting (RTM) passed the law last September by a 26-5 vote. While Westport is known for its trendy Main Street enclave of upscale shops and boutiques that appear happy to adopt the new rules, the town also has a sizeable contingent of retail strip malls on its share of Route 1 that will have to make adjustments.
Rep. Kim Fawcett, who represents Fairfield and Westport in the Connecticut General Assembly, won little support for her bill last year to impose a statewide ban on plastic bags within two years.
Westport Rep. Joe Mioli filed a similar bill this month without immediately specifying a timetable. Mioli proposes a $150 fine on retailers who do not comply with his proposed law, identical to the penalty to be enacted this March by the Westport RTM.
Bridgeport Rep. Jack Hennessy has proposed a 5-cent tax on every bag given to a buyer, whether plastic or paper. Hennessy”™s bill is not without precedent nationally ”“ this month Seattle began charging 20 cents for each plastic bag used at checkout, according to the Citizens Campaign for the Environment (CCE), which has an office in New Haven.
CCE notes that Westport is the first municipality east of the Mississippi to enact such a ban, although the Massachusetts island of Nantucket has allowed only biodegradable packaging materials in its stores since 1990.
Whole Foods is one Westport retailer that needs no introduction to plastic bag alternatives ”“ a year ago last week, the Austin, Texas-based company became the first grocery chain in the nation to commit to eliminating the use of plastic bags, giving away more than 50,000 bags for free in January 2008.
Since eliminating plastic bags in time for Earth Day last April, Whole Foods estimates the decision spared landfills and the environment more than 100 million bags. By that math, the Westport store may have kept more than 350,000 bags out of circulation. The company also has a store in Greenwich, among a half-dozen in Connecticut.
Trader Joe”™s also provides bags made from recycled materials for shoppers at its stores in Westport, Danbury, Darien and Fairfield.
As is the case in Westport, Whole Foods”™ self-imposed ban does not apply to plastic bags used in deli, seafood and bakery departments, but the company said it is committed to finding viable alternatives for their use.
Some say such bans have a hidden environmental cost. Donna Dempsey of the American Chemistry Council testified to the Connecticut General Assembly last year that it takes nine trailer trucks to deliver the same number of paper bags as a single truck could deliver of the plastic variety, with the ratio applying to garbage trucks needed to cart bags off to dumps or recycling centers. Plastic bags also require 40 percent less energy to manufacture than paper, she added.
Stan Sorkin, executive director of the Connecticut Food Association, said that many retailers offer shoppers the option to return bags, which are then recycled for use in items such as plastic decking used as construction materials.
Whole Foods sells reusable bags made primarily from plastic bottles, with each bag representing four, 20-ounce bottles. Stew Leonard”™s, with stores in Connecticut and Yonkers, N.Y., ran a contest last year to determine the design on its reusable bags as a promotion to put more of them in circulation.
This month New York enacted a law requiring stores with at least 10,000 square feet of space to offer in-store recycling of plastic bags, with the law extending to some categories of retailers with half that amount of space.