By Brian X. McCrone
Metro, June 10, 2009
CITY HALL. While Councilman Frank DiCicco couldn't find support for a 25-cent tax on plastic bags at grocery stores, he's now going for a complete ban.
Weeks after his fee proposal died a quiet death, a committee unanimously approved a ban of bags at all stores in the city starting in 2011. The bill is expected to be voted on next Thursday at Council's last meeting before a three-month summer break.
"We agreed it would be a total ban but would not take effect until July 1, 2011 [to] give people a couple years to adjust themselves and time for stores to reduce their stock," DiCicco said.
A lobbyist for plastic bag manufacturers again argued that other alternatives like paper bags actually do more harm to the environment and that litter does not decrease when plastic bags are outlawed.
"Paper bags weigh 10 times as much as plastic bags, so it takes that much more energy to make them and transport them," Keith Christman of American Chemistry said. "And studies show plastic bags make up [only] 1 percent of municipal waste."
He also said Philadelphia would be the second big city in the country to ban outright plastic bags, though others cities have started charging fees for using plastic bags. In San Francisco, where a ban has been in place for a while, Christman said a study showed recently plastic bags, as a percentage of overall waste, has decreased from 0.6 percent to 0.4 percent.
The sudden change from fees to an outright ban left some local advocates in a hurry to get behind the ban.
"We had gotten really comfortable with the fee. We felt sometimes there are times when you need a bag, but also that it would create some revenue back into anti-litter work," Christine Knapp of PennFuture said.
Weeks after his fee proposal died a quiet death, a committee unanimously approved a ban of bags at all stores in the city starting in 2011. The bill is expected to be voted on next Thursday at Council's last meeting before a three-month summer break.
"We agreed it would be a total ban but would not take effect until July 1, 2011 [to] give people a couple years to adjust themselves and time for stores to reduce their stock," DiCicco said.
A lobbyist for plastic bag manufacturers again argued that other alternatives like paper bags actually do more harm to the environment and that litter does not decrease when plastic bags are outlawed.
"Paper bags weigh 10 times as much as plastic bags, so it takes that much more energy to make them and transport them," Keith Christman of American Chemistry said. "And studies show plastic bags make up [only] 1 percent of municipal waste."
He also said Philadelphia would be the second big city in the country to ban outright plastic bags, though others cities have started charging fees for using plastic bags. In San Francisco, where a ban has been in place for a while, Christman said a study showed recently plastic bags, as a percentage of overall waste, has decreased from 0.6 percent to 0.4 percent.
The sudden change from fees to an outright ban left some local advocates in a hurry to get behind the ban.
"We had gotten really comfortable with the fee. We felt sometimes there are times when you need a bag, but also that it would create some revenue back into anti-litter work," Christine Knapp of PennFuture said.