How much do plastic bags cost the city?

AUSTIN (KXAN) - How much do the use of those free plastic bags actually cost the city, in terms of landfill and recycling costs?

"It simply costs too much money. It's not sustainable long-term both environmentally or economically," said Rick Cofer with Bag the Bag Coalition .

On Thursday, the Austin City Council is expected to pass a resolution asking the city manager to determine the cost to Austin taxpayers of processing plastic bags in the waste stream.

“Now is the appropriate time to determine how much it costs tax payers if plastic bags are allowed to continue to pollute the waste stream in Austin,” Cofer said.

While no one knows exactly how much it costs the city to process the plastic bags, many think it'll be close to the City of San Francisco .

The Golden Gate City said it costs their tax payers 17 cents per bag.

“I expect that the data will show it makes sense to ban plastic bags in Austin,” Cofer said.

Bag the Bag and other environmental groups have asked the city to ban plastic bags altogether.

Austin’s Mayor Lee Leffingwell said he’s not ruling out the possibility of an outright ban.

“What we’ve done so far is not enough,” Leffingwell said.

Three years ago, Leffingwell was the driving force behind an attempt to cut the number of bags entering the city’s waste stream by 50 percent.

During the program, the city asked participating retailers to offer plastic bag recycling as well as cheap re-usable bags for their customers to use.

Leffingwell called that program successful, but according to the city, it did not reach its goal of 50 percent.

In 2008, the city also tried a pilot plastic bag curbside recycling program. After only a few months, the city stopped the program because of low participation.

City staff has until September to report their cost findings back to the City Council.