Shoreline City Council enacts plastic carryout bag ordinance
Monday, May 6, 2013
On April 29, the Shoreline City Council voted to prohibit plastic carryout bags at all retail locations in Shoreline. The new regulations will require a mandatory charge of at least five cents on each ‘grocery-sized’ paper bags provided to customers. The adopted regulations will go into effect on February 1, 2014, based on feedback from merchants who wanted to finish the holiday season before implementing the change.
This action makes Shoreline the eighth city in Washington State to ban or regulate plastic carryout bags.
Modeled after the City of Seattle’s carryout bag regulations, the new Shoreline regulations also include a number of exemptions. There are exemptions for food banks, individuals with low incomes from the five cent fee for paper bags, thicker plastic bags, and various types of plastic bags found in retail establishments, such as produce bags, dry cleaning bags, small bags for bulk items, and bags to wrap around certain goods where dampness may be a problem.
The action aligns with the City’s Environmental Sustainability Strategy and is aimed at reducing waste from the waste stream and litter, which can end up polluting our marine environments, conserving natural resources, reducing green house gas emissions and protecting Shoreline’s environment.
Over the next eight months, the City will engage with Shoreline citizens and the Shoreline business community to help them understand the new regulations.
For more information about the carryout bag regulations contact Management Analyst John Norris at 206-801-2216.
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10 comments:
Just go eat a meal at any fast food restaurant and look at the waste paper and plastic that is discarded with every meal. At least plastic bags can be recycled. This is a meaningless ordinance that will simply create inconvenience without any real benefit.
Thank you City Council! Now it's time to ban Round Up and the other lazy man's chemicals that are killing our wildlife and polluting the Sound.
@6:27 So, would you care to reveal the whole man-eradicating agenda, so the public can vote up or down on the whole shebang?
They did it in Seattle too - but the ethnic stores like Viet Wah in Seattle get a pass. Same with Shoreline?
This is a DUMB decision. If they want to change fine but stores should provide the paper bags. I'll go shop where they give me a bag - thank you very much!
Shoreline is right in the middle of two cities that have already done this (Seattle and Edmonds), I think this is great. If they are modeling their law off Seattle, bags will still be available, only they'll be paper and will cost 5 cents, it not a big deal. Edmonds doesn't charge for paper bags, and I kinda wish they did.
Also, Paper and reusable bags hold 2 to 3 times more items, so you will use less bags than with plastic!
Shoreline passed this into law with almost no public notice. If you look at the April issue of Currents, there's nothing in it.
If you oppose the ordinance, get loud and get in contact with your public officials. Tell them that the only way you'll continue to vote for them is if they repeal the ordinance now!
I make every effort to manage my environmental footprint, and the last thing I need is for an elected body to tell me what kind of plastic bag I may and may not use. It insults my intelligence.
This truly sucks, time to vote them out
For us dog owners who clean up dog droppings in our yards, losing the plastic grocery bags is a huge loss. I wear a plastic bag on each foot, tying them tightly above my ankles, preventing any "missteps" from messing up my shoes. I always properly dispose of plastic bags and never have let one get thrown out into the environment. I guess I can use the huge Costco tie garbage bags instead--creating a much larger "footprint" of plastic going into our dumps. Plastic grocery bags have multiple uses, and I think banning them completely is stupid.
What is the difference between grocery plastic bags and those you buy in a roll? Stupid ordinance and a burden on the grocery stores to collect cost. What about plastic bags at dry cleaners? I reuse my bags. Vote out these politians.
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