Plastic bag ban could happen next year

AUSTIN (KXAN) - A new draft of the bag ban ordinance was recently released by City of Austin staff members, and suggests banning single-use plastic and paper bags by Jan. 1, 2013.

"We're never going to get rid of plastics. Plastics are here to stay," said Gerry Acuna, chair for the Solid Waste Advisory Commission. "The focus of this ordinance is to reduce the amount of plastic that is being shipped around the city."

On Wednesday night, a second draft suggests the phase-in process start June 1 of this year, with a 10-cent surcharge of each single-use plastic and paper bag, or a possible $1 transaction charge.

The original draft, released in December, suggested that surcharge be at 25 cents. The original draft also suggested the phase-in process start Jan. 1, 2013 and end just before Jan. 1, 2016 -- which at that point, there would be a full ban of the single-use bags altogether.

City staff suggests the reason for accelerating the process was due to them receiving nearly 500 emails from citizens favoring the ban and no one emailing staff members that they were against it.

"The goal is to listen what people believe is a doable, workable ordinance," Acuna said.

Opponents of the process said the accelerated timeline doesn't give retailers enough chance to train their staff or reprogram their registers.

"It does accelerate the implementation phase, which presents some logistical issues for retailers in that it takes time to train staff, takes time to reprogram cash registers to be collecting a bag tax," said Ronnie Volkening, with the Texas Retailers Association. "And then it's only going to be in place seven months and you have to undo that bag tax again."

Volkening is also worried it will force consumers to shop outside of Austin.

"A lot of consumers are very attached to have some sort of bags to take their products home in. And they may very well decide to drive across city lines to the store next door," he said.

In the most recent draft, the single-use bag ban would not apply to:

1) Laundry dry cleaning bags, door-hangar bags, newspaper bags, or packages of multiple bags intended for use as garbage, pet waste, or yard waste; and
2) Bags used by a consumer inside a business establishment to:
a) Contain bulk items, such as produce, nuts, grains, candy or small hardware items;
b) Contain or wrap frozen foods, meats, or fish, whether or not prepackaged;
c) Contain or wrap flowers, potted plants or other items to prevent moisture damage to other purchases; or
d) Contain unwrapped prepared foods or bakery good.

City staff are also working to exempt prescription bags from the ban because of privacy reasons; and also fast food and restaurant take-out bags, because of health concerns.

"I think that staff and this commission has been absolutely bending backwards to work with the Retailers Association, the fast-food people, all the folks that are a part of this process," Acuna said.

A third draft -- expected to be a more compromising approach -- is expected to be released to City Council members the end of January.

More public meetings are also scheduled before City Council members possibly take a vote on the ban some time in March.