State bag ban would have little impact in Bellingham

Proposed legislation to ban plastic bags statewide would have only minor impacts in Bellingham, where a city-approved ban is scheduled to go into effect Aug. 1.

The state legislation introduced earlier this week contains all of the major features of Bellingham's ban:

- Nearly all use of plastic shopping bags is banned;

- Retailers must charge 5 cents per bag to shoppers who request recycled paper bags for purchases, with the money reserved for the retailer;

- Shoppers on public food assistance are exempt from the paper-bag fee;

- Also exempt are restaurants and other retailers selling hot take-home foods;

- Bags provided inside the store for bulk foods are still allowed.

Yoshi Kumara, a legislative assistant to State Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon, D-Burien, said the statewide legislation is getting support from retailers who hope to avoid having to deal with different laws in different cities. Bellingham, Seattle, Edmonds and Mukilteo have enacted their own city ordinances regulating shopping bags.

"The grocers would like to have a uniform regulation across the state," Kumara said.

Bellingham City Attorney Joan Hoisington said she hadn't reviewed the proposed state legislation, but a state law would override some portions of the city ordinance if the state measure were more restrictive.

For example, the city ordinance allows retailers to apply for an exemption, granted by the mayor's office, if they believe they have special circumstances that makes the plastic bag ban a hardship. If the Legislature approves a statewide ban, the mayor would have no such authority.

The debate on the statewide measure is already under way in Olympia.

Environmental organizations are pushing for the ban to keep the bags out of roadsides, landfills and the bellies of whales in Puget Sound.

But spokesmen for the bag manufacturers and sellers say the environmental problems are exaggerated, and a ban would force people out of work.

Mark Daniels, a vice president at manufacturer Hilex Poly, told the state Senate Committee on Environment that there are better ways to protect the environment.

"Washington residents interested in reducing litter and protecting the environment would be far better served supporting a statewide recycling program rather than an all-out ban on retail plastic carry-out bags, a policy which will only push consumers to alternatives that are less sustainable, not more," Daniels' statement said. "The truth is banning one product that makes only one to two percent of litter will have no meaningful impact on litter. Instead, it will result in forcing consumers to use products such as reusable bags, which are mostly imported from China, made from foreign oil and are not recyclable, or to use paper bags, which have a larger carbon footprint than plastic bags."

State Sen. Maralyn Chase, D-Shoreline, is sponsor of the Senate bill. She also sponsors bills restricting Styrofoam take-out containers and plastic beverage bottles. High levels of plastic are being found in the oceans, and a gray whale that died in the Puget Sound in 2010 had 20 plastic bags in its stomach.

The level of recycling for plastic bags is low, she said, only about 5 percent.

But recycling is low in part because some bags are reused for other things once a shopper carries things home from a store, said Keith Lee of American Retail Supply. The term "single-use" bag is a misnomer, he said, because more than 90 percent of homes reuse them for something else.

And it could mean that people taking out wet garbage in paper bags won't make it to the trash before the bottom falls out, a legislator complained.

Many people use them to line their trash cans, said Sen. Jim Honeyford, R-Sunnyside; if the bags are banned, "what are we going to use?"

No other state has enacted a ban on the bags.

The Spokesman-Review newspaper in Spokane contributed to this report.