In
January, 2010, Washington, DC, became the first major municipality in the
country to implement a fee on disposable plastic and paper bags, using those
revenues to create the Anacostia River Cleanup Fund. As reported by ABC News, other localities have tried to pass
legislation banning plastic bags outright, while some have addressed the issue
of plastic bags – and the impact of “floatable” waste on the amount of trash
found in rivers - by requiring the
installation of recycling bins at stores that provide bags. In DC, however,
policymakers took a more collaborative approach, and focused efforts on
cleaning the river, rather than banning the bags.
During
an Anacostia Workshop held in June, 2009, shortly after the bill was passed, DC
City Councilman Tommy Wells – the author of DC’s bag fee bill – shared his
story on how this coalition of stores and environmentalists came together to
move forward this legislation.
Today, I
want to talk through how we won this bill.
I hope this story will be instructional for other initiatives around the
regional and across the country. As a
City Council member, I wanted to do something for the environment. The grocery and bottling industry had
defeated the “bottle bill” in a way were we could not bring up another bottle
bill ever again. This put a damper on
other initiatives. I wanted to ensure
that my next effort would not only win, but not lose and put a similar cloud
over other environmental legislation.
I decided to go after plastic
bags. I looked at bills across the
country, such as the one in Seattle. I
also looked at what is in the Anacostia River in terms of trash. Instead of meeting with the environmental
community, I brought in the business community, including the Government
Relations Director for Giant. Giant had
been central to defeating the bottle bill.
Giant’s Government Relations Director then chaired the nonprofit
“Environment America.” I wanted to talk
to him as a champion for the environment.
We looked at the costs of plastic
bags. Plastic bags cost 2 cents each for
stores, while paper bags cost 5 cents, so stores had had to fight bans on
plastic bags, would have hurt their businesses.
When we looked at paper versus plastic, the way we looked at it was the cost
to business. If these businesses had
from scratch, would they would not give out free bags, and instead should have
passed those costs to the consumer. At
this point, giving free bags is a tradition..... We also brought in safety considerations,
which were raised by Harris Teeter. If we
could come up with bill that was neutral to them, they would stay on sidelines.
We went with a 5 cent fee for ALL
bags, paper AND plastic, and would return 1 cent per bag to the stores for all
bags. We then lined up friends and
partners. We had the Surfriders on
board. We did petitions at grocery
stores. How we framed it was NOT as a
bag bill but as an Anacostia Cleanup Bill.
If we had a forum on bill, the opposition would have to talk about why they
were not cleaning up the Anacostia. Instead,
the opposition framed the bill as a tax on the poor. So, we brought in stores like Costco that
already charge for bags so they can keep cost of bags down. We went to poor neighborhoods and senior
centers, and gave out reusable bags and showed films on the Anacostia. We also went to Annapolis to propose a bill at
the same time [in the Maryland Legislature] to dilute lobbyists’ efforts. [With this approach, we have] Styrofoam, plastic
bottles, other things to go after.
ED
NOTE: During the first month the Bag Fee was in effect, stores reported 50-80%
decreases in bag demand and nearly $150,000 in revenues collected for the Fund. For more information on how the Anacostia
River Clean Up and Protection Fund has been used, see XXX.
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