Go ‘all in’ for plastic bag ban
When it comes to the plastic bag law on Oahu, anything less than a full ban would be a waste of time.
So while we can appreciate City Councilman Brandon Elefante’s push to make it more difficult for retailers to hand out “reusable” plastic bags, his proposal unfortunately does not move the needle far enough.
A ban is not truly a ban if it allows half-steps, which is what the current plastic bag law — and Elefante’s well-intended proposal — does.
It’s why there are still plastic bags strewn along roadways and why they end up in the ocean, harming marine and coral life.
If retailers continue to distribute these “reusable” plastic bags, they will continue making their way into the environment.
Elefante’s proposal, Bill 59, will get its first public airing at Wednesday’s City Council meeting in Kapolei. Bill 59 would change the existing plastic bag ban by making it illegal to distribute “compostable” plastic bags at the checkout counter and requiring “reusable” plastic bags be at least 3 mils or 3/1,000 of an inch thick — up from 2.25 mils now allowed.
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The measure mirrors Maui and Hawaii counties’ requirements that bags be at least 3 mils. But what exactly that would accomplish remains unclear, since more than likely, it simply would lead to the proliferation of even thicker bags.
In fact, Kahi Pacarro, executive director of the nonprofit Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii, said thicker bags “use even more fossil fuels to make and transport,” noting they remain “a huge risk to our fragile environment.”
Pacarro proposes that bags be 4 mils, a threshold that ultimately makes it uneconomical for retailers to distribute them.
An outright ban, though, seems the most practical way to encourage consumers to change their routines and habits rather than enable them.
Having no plastic options essentially pushes consumers to use their own reusable cloth bags or perhaps pay a fee for paper sacks instead. It comes down to a matter of routine.
As for the compostable bags, Pacarro rightly said it makes sense to do away with them since they remain a danger to wildlife and can only be composted in a commercial composting facility — a facility that does not even exist on Oahu.
Bag bans cut this litter off at the source, according to an article published on Wired.com. In San Jose, Calif., a plastic bag ban led to an 89 percent reduction in the number of plastic bags winding up in the city’s storm drains, the article reported.
Already, City Council Chairman Ernie Martin is suggesting a go-slow approach to changing the existing plastic bag law. In this case, however, going slow equates to lengthening the time span that plastic bags will continue to cause damage, especially when they wind up in the ocean.
Martin said “eventually” all plastic bags will have to be banned, “but to get there we must be cognizant of the cost to consumers and the businesses impacted by any change to the ordinance.”
That might be so, but it’s worth remembering that the plastic-bag ban has been a long time coming.
The law was initially passed in April 2012 but took effect only last year — on July 1, 2015 — in order to give retailers time to use up their existing stock and purchase new ones. In those three years, the law was changed to allow compostable bags after an attempt to delete an original exemption for biodegradable bags drew pushback from merchants and plastic-bag makers.
But all these incremental steps simply won’t amount to a worthwhile ban if plastic bags — whether compostable or thicker 3 mil — are still handed out at the register. Retailers could be allowed to expend the supply they currently have and simply be done with purchasing plastic bags.
Incentives could be given to customers who bring in their own reusable fabric bags. Retailers such as Target already use that tactic, and even though it’s just a few cents, it’s both a savings and a mind-changer.
Elefante said he is open to suggestions regarding the bill’s language: “Essentially, it’s to strengthen what we currently have now while also moving our city forward and being much more sustainable.”
It’s time to go full-strength. Ending the use of plastic bags on Oahu won’t take place in the foreseeable future unless city leaders abandon the “go slow” approach and instead, take bold action.
16 responses to “Go ‘all in’ for plastic bag ban”
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During the 2 years before the O’ahu bag ban, I assembled a huge stash of bags. And I’m glad I did. I have enough to last for the next couple of years, and there’s nothing the bag police can do to stop me. You clowns at Star-Advertiser are ridiculous. Without throwaway plastic bags, how are we supposed to collect trash at the beach, collect and discard damp garbage down the trash chute of a high-rise condo, or collect dog poop?
People got along with out plastic before it was invented. Now maybe it time to go back to the pre-plastic time when the earth had degradable opala.
If THE PEOPLE have a problem with a store’s policy they can personally take action or simply choose not to shop there. Enough with the nanny state “thinking” for us. The State does a lousy job of it, apparently, anyway.
Plastic bag ban? Most often we buy more than we intended @ large chain stores etc. A band aid to the band on plastic bags will cost vendors sales and mess up the spending experience while sorting buy or no buy to fit in the OK bags or arms, eventually end up tossed then more to breakdown ay ya
I guess I’m not at the beach that often – exactly how many bags are floating around out there? I don’t see a lot of these on the roads or highways either, so I’m curious as to how big a problem this was to cause the ban in the first place.
What about all the plastic bags that are used at fast food/plate lunch places? Get rid of them too??? or regular garbage bags? Why are they still around? I see those flying on the sidewalks too. How about plastic bottles for water? Soda? and the millions of other items that hold things that you see in the stores everyday? Do we eventually ban them too??? Just curious. 🙂
I get friends on the Mainland to send me plastic bags
You guys at the S-A have totally lost your brains if you ever had any. BTW, where are these roadways with plastic bags blowing all over the place?
Let’s ban shopping carts next! They LEGALLY REQUIRED locks on the shopping car often lock before you even reach your car.
What a dumb proposed ban. Today, anyone willing to spend a few bucks can order 1000 sheet boxes of these plastic bags from dozens of willing merchants. Most smart shoppers have already made use of the on-line outlets. If not, order some today.
I absolutely agree, at what cost to the environment do we keep allowing for consumers to keep using these bags? I mean, its not that hard to take a canvas bag or two with you, its common sense and we ALL live on this earth, take care of it please!!! The average use of a plastic bag is 12 to 20 minutes!! Is it worth that 20 minutes to trash up the environment? For the sake of the generations that follow us we should have started long ago to reuse and not keep throwing away mindlessly all this plastic that will not degrade for hundreds of years.
I recycle cans and bottles to collect the nickel deposit. They are wet after rinsing. If you put them in a paper bag, that bag will get wet and break. I keep the cans and bottles in the trunk of my car for about a month until I have at least 100. What the heck do you think I should do with them? I use my recycles plastic bags all the time, not just for the “12 to 20 minutes” you say it takes to bring home groceries. Go ahead, send the bag police to arrest me.
Actually, until you reuse a cloth bag over 120 times, it is actually more detrimental to the environment than plastic bags due to the drmatically higher energy and resource use in its production and transport to your Hawaiian house.
And if you wash it periodically–as you definitely should–you have to reuse it even more times to make up for the detergent, energy, and water (and sewage treatment) used to wash (and dry–if you use the dryer) the bag.
Plastic is good and plastic is bad. Single use plastic should be minimized. Plastic getting loose in our environment needs to be prevented. Plastic filling our limited space in landfills needs to be recycled/re-purposed. Plastic lasts too long and is killing off lots of animals that have every right to live on this planet without having to figure out how to survive our opala. Reducing plastic use through legislation is not radical environmentalism. Continuing plastic degradation of our living earth is a manifestation of god complex terrorism.
Every issue of the Star Advertiser is delivered in a thin plastic bag. With a weekday circulation of 200,000 + that’s a lot of plastic bags. Aren’t they a concern as much as the plastic shopping bags?