State law overturns City's ban on plastic bags

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The ban on usage of plastic bag in the City of Minneapolis will not take effect on June 1, 2017, as proposed, following approval of State law which prohibits cities from imposing local bans. Governor Mark Dayton signed Tuesday, a budget bill containing a provision that prohibits cities from banning any type of bags. The State bill came into effect Wednesday, one day before the Minneapolis City ban on plastic bags was about to take effect. The proposed City ban was to take effect on June 1, 2017.

Minneapolis Council Member Cam Gordon, the chief author of the City ordinance stated that he was disappointed by the Legislature’s action. The ordinance would be studied in detail to explore possibilities of better ways to regulate single-use bags, in compliance with the state law. The City Council urged people to carry their own bags while shopping, in an attempt to reduce the usage of single-use bags. Meantime, Minnesota Grocers Association welcomed the state law, stating that different regulations across the state would have created big problems for small and medium-sized grocery stores.

The ordinance passed by Minneapolis City Council in March this year would have banned plastic bags at checkouts and placed restrictions on paper bags. Accordingly, retail establishments were prohibited from providing plastic carryout bags to any customer. However, recyclable paper bags, compostable plastic bags or bags designed for multiple uses were exempted from the ban. The retail establishments providing such bags were to levy a pass-through charge of not less than 5 cents per bag. The ordinance had exempted certain categories of plastic bags such as those which come into direct contact with food, bags used to wrap take-away food items, newspaper bags, door-hanger bags, laundry dry cleaning bags and other specialized types of bags.

The supporters of the ordinance had claimed it to take the City one step closer to zero-waste goal. As per estimates, Minnesotans throw away approximately 87,000 tons of plastic bags every year, a majority of this cause harm to environment due to non-acceptance of plastic bags for recycling by city curbside recycling programs. According to sponsors of the ordinance, it would have resulted in reduction in amount of litter across roads and waterways. On the other hand, opponents of the bill had cited that switching over to alternative bag solutions would lead to economic burden on regular shoppers. In addition to putting pressure on retailers, the ordinance would have ultimately hurt consumers, they said.

Meantime, many city businesses had made preparations to face the proposed ban. Target retail chain had announced discount of 5 cents per bag for bringing their own bags to their outlets. The retailer had kept thousands of paper bags ready to replace the plastic ones. Also, Subway had replaced plastic sandwich bags with paper alternatives, in line with the theme to get rid of plastic bags.