Minneapolis Revised Bag Fee Ordinance Heads to Full Council

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The revised bag ordinance proposes to collect 5-cent fee on plastic and paper bags distributed at retail store outlets. The proposal has been voted unanimously by the City Council’s Health, Environment and Community Engagement Committee and has now been forwarded to the full council for its approval. The Minneapolis City Council is expected to consider the ordinance at its next meeting. If approved by the full Council, the ordinance will go into effect October 2018.

In accordance with the ordinance, plastic, paper, compostable and reusable bags provided by retailers at checkouts has to be charged 5-cent fee. The store owners will keep the collected fee in order to fund the cost of providing bags. The ordinance exempts certain categories of bags such as those used to package bulk grocery items and dry cleaning bags. Restaurants are also exempted from charging fee for bags used to pack take-away food. Also, customers who use public assistance to buy food are not liable to pay fee.

The City Council noted that the ordinance will help to encourage City residents to bring reusable bags to grocery and retail stores, thereby bringing in a healthy change to their shopping habits. This will reduce the harmful environmental impacts caused by improper disposal of free bags by shoppers. The revised ordinance is an effort to reduce the waste and litter problems, the City Council Committee noted. Further, it would lead to significant reduction of processing issues faced by recycling facilities, it added. Cam Gordon, chair of the Health, Environment and Community Engagement Committee stated that the ordinance is expected to encourage store owners and consumers to make smarter decision to protect the environment by bringing their own bags for shopping. Meantime, the public hearing on the ordinance Monday raised concerns that imposition of 5-cent fee on shopping bags would hurt low-income residents.

The Minneapolis City had introduced an ordinance last year which proposed banning of plastic bags and charging fee on paper bags. The ordinance was supposed to take effect on June 1^st this year. However, just two days before that, Governor Mark Dayton signed a budget bill with a provision that prohibited cities from implementing outright ban on any type of bags. As a result, the ordinance had become void, forcing the City Council to come up with the revised ordinance proposing bag fee instead of ban.

The City curbside recycling programs do not accept plastic bags for recycling. As per estimates, Minnesotans throw away approximately 87,000 tons of plastic bags every year, littering roads and waterways.