Gaining unanimous approval Monday night, the Port Townsend City Council passed an ordinance banning the distribution of plastic bags effective Nov. 1, 2012.

Port Townsend is now the seventh city in Washington state to take such an action. The ban is a hybrid of the Seattle and Bainbridge Island ordinances and applies only to single-use plastic carryout bags at the point of sale.

Michelle Sandoval, chair of the council's Special Projects Committee, called the decision “encouraging” and a way to support people choosing to reuse everyday items.

“What we’ve learned is that there can be unintended consequences from the more convenient choices,” she said.

More than 1,000 residents, from Port Townsend and Jefferson County signed a petition supporting the ban.Proponents cited numerous environmental concerns related to plastic bags littering local ecosystems including dangers poised to local marine and wildlife when bags are ingested.

Less than 1 percent of plastic bags are recycled worldwide – about 2 percent in the U.S. – with the remainder ending up in landfills or blowing in the wind.

“This decision keeps at least 4,000,000 plastic bags out of our local waste stream annually,” said Jude Rubin, aka “Bag Monster,” calculating an average of 450 bags used annually by each of Port Townsend’s 9,000 residents.

Exemptions

Numerous exemptions allow for the use of a variety of other plastic bags in stores and in the community. Some examples include:

- produce bags i.e. for lettuce or carrots

- bulk item bags i.e. for nuts or candy

- frozen food bags i.e. for meats or ice cream

- garbage, storage bags i.e. Ziplock or Hefty bags

- pharmacy bags

- dry cleaning bags

- specially-sized bags for small items i.e. nails at the hardware store, or oversized bags for oversized items i.e. poster board

- doggie waste bags at parks

Prohibition applies only to the lightweight plastic bags, at under 2.25 mils. Stores could choose to provide thicker plastic bags.

“The idea being that those bags would be more likely to be recycled or reused,” said City Attorney John Watts.

Any retailer that feels burdened by the requirement can make a case to the city for special consecration and gain a one-year exemption before enforcement would continue.

A special stipulation allows for merchants at the farmer’s markets to use plastic bags to distribute produce.

Defining the various exemptions was primarily the reason for a first and second reading of the ordinance before approval. Councilor and business owner Kris Nelson said she was happy with the final result but that she would have like to see more language describing all foreseeable situations where the ban could potentially come into question.

To create a “fair playing field” the ordinance requires stores to charge customers a fee for recycled paper bags, at a cost of 5 cents per bag. The charge applies only to the standard-sized paper grocery bags. Smaller paper bags for items like wine or pharmaceuticals are not affected.

Customers on government assistance, such as food stamps, would not be required to pay the 5-cent fee.

Money collected for paper bags are retained by the retailer to help offset the cost of providing the alternative option. The 5-cent charge is a taxable sale, according to the Washington State Department of Revenue.

“Of the 8.9 percent sales tax in the county, the city portion is .85 cents of the tax collected,” said Watts. “So, on the sale of 1,000 bags, representing $50 in taxable sales, the city would receive 42 cents in sales tax revenue.”

Opponents of this stipulation argue that a retailer should be free to choose whether or not to charge for a paper bag.

Enforcement

Stores are allowed to distribute the remainder of their plastic bag inventory even if doing so exceeds the Nov. 1, 2012 start-date for enforcement. After Nov. 1, Watts said, education is the first step.

Proprietors would be approached if the city received complaints and offered fact sheets and other informative materials on the reasoning behind the ban. If the violation continued an offender could face up to a $250 fine for showing intentional disregard.

Promotion effort

The city is considering a variety of promotions to raise awareness about the ban including designing a program where local business and the city could partner to create a locally themed reusable cloth bag.

Councilor Mark Welch offered an example of what a city bag could look like, with a sun insignia matching that used for the Port Townsend's Wayfinding Project on one side and potentially a city logo or business logo on the other.

The council approved for City Manager David Timmons to work with the Special Projects Committee to develop a proposals for such as program with input from the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce and other business entities.