Plastic Bag Ordinances

The City of Bainbridge is the most recent city in Washington to ban plastic shopping bags in an effort to reduce plastic litter and protect Puget Sound marine life.

Cities around Puget Sound have taken action to ban plastic carry home bags in an effort to reduce plastic litter and protect Puget Sound marine life. Seattle, Bainbridge, Bellingham, Edmonds, and Mukilteo have passed ordinances addressing plastic bags. Other cities are considering legislation. Around the US, many local jurisdictions including communities, cities or counties in California, Alaska, Hawaii have also banned bags. We are joining countries from all over the world, such as China, Italy, India, and much of Europe where plastic bags are banned or have been reduced.

A recent report by Environment Washington provides compelling evidence of the damage these bags cause to marine life.

We need to phase out the use of plastic bags throughout Puget Sound because:

Plastics harm our wildlife. Birds, fish, and whales can choke on them, they are poisonous, and they can become entangled.
Plastic bags are light-weight and easily blow into our waters. They break down into tiny bits but don’t biodegrade for hundreds of years.
The tiny pieces of plastic, including plastic bag pieces, are called microplastics, and are floating in Puget Sound. Every water sample taken in Puget Sound so far by researchers at UW Tacoma have plastic bits.
Tiny plastics are a pathway for toxic chemicals. Plastics attract toxic chemicals like a sponge. Fish then eat these plastic bits.
Plastics are accumulating in our world’s oceans. The most researched area, so far, is the North Pacific Gyre (learn more about it here) where a floating thin soup of plastics is in an area that is estimated to be greater than the size of Texas.

Seattle’s Bag Ordinance Bans Plastic Carry-home Bags and Enacts 5 Cents Fee for Paper Bags

The goal of Seattle’s single-use carryout bag ordinance is to eliminate the use of single-use bags in order to reduce marine debris and limit waste sent to the landfill.

The bag ordinance prohibit retailers from providing light-weight, single-use plastic carryout bags to customers at the point of sale. This includes any plastic carryout bag less than 2.25 mil thick, including bio-based plastic bags made from plant sources such as corn.

The ordinance imposes a 5 cent fee on recyclable paper carry-out bags larger than or the same size as a grocery bag. Stores keep the 5 cent fee. Revenues generated by sales of paper bags remain with the stores.

The new ordinance does not prohibit the distribution of produce bags (veggie bags), bags for frozen food, meat, and small items. Also dry cleaner, newspaper bags are exempted.

Restaurants and other food vendors may provide single-use plastic carryout bags to customers for the transportation of take-out food and liquids. This exemption is included for health and safety.

FAQs: Seattle Plastic Bag Ordinance

Why five cents (rather than the 20 cents from the last ordinance)?

Washington DC passed a 5 cent fee on bags and bag use went down by 85% within months.

Isn’t recycling plastic bags better?

Definitively not. Plastic bags clog the sorting equipment at the recycling centers and take valuable hours to stop the machines and unclog them.
In addition, bags (and other plastics) are baled and largely sent across the ocean and then downcycled into lower grade plastic items. It is much better to use less bags and thus have less to recycle.

Is this really that big of an issue?

One-use disposable plastics ARE a big problem. They are accumulating in our oceans.
Seattle uses 292 million bags every year so getting rid of that many bags would be significant
Passing ordinances like the Styrofoam ban and the bag ban helps build our strong environmental ethic here in the Pacific Northwest. We are leaders in the country on many environmental issues and these ordinances are small steps that reflect what people can do in their own daily lives which lead to their action on tougher things like climate change.

Isn’t paper worse than plastic in terms of greenhouse gases?

Yes. The manufacture and transport of paper is worse. That is why this ordinance has a five cents fee on paper bags. Plastic bags are much worse than paper in terms of accumulating in the ocean. The goal of the proposed ordinance is to promote the use of reusable bags.
Paper bags biodegrade whereas plastic bags just break down into smaller pieces that remain for hundreds of years, harming our wildlife. Ultimately, reusable bags are the best.

Isn’t this unfair to low income residents?

People on food stamps (EPC cards) are explicitly exempt. The city will also be doing free give-a-ways for low income residents
In many, many countries (including Europe), people bring their own bags. They carry them folded up in their backpack, purse or bag.

Why can’t we use compostable or biodegradable bags instead?

These bags contaminate the waste stream – regular plastic bags that are recycled. It is a big problem for our recycling program when we introduce contamination (like bags that have a different chemistry).

Why don’t we see plastics on the beaches of Puget Sound?

Plastic bags are buoyantly neutral and so they don’t float on the surface, like Styrofoam. So they do not wash up on the beaches. Instead, they get shredded and break down into tiny pieces over time. Some of them (unknown percentage) fall to the bottom of the Sound and get buried in the mud.

What about my dog poop?

Veggie bags, newspaper bags and other bags will still be available.

How many bags do we use in Seattle?

The city has estimated that we use about 292 million plastic bags per year (360 million total, including paper)

For more information please email Heather Trim, Director of Policy.