Bad Bag Ban

On Friday, March 2, 2012, the Austin City Council passed a bag ban. This will ban disposable paper and plastic bags at all retail checkout counters beginning next year in March 2013.  Only reusable bags, those made of durable material, thicker paper, and plastic bags with handles will be offered by retailers and those who do not follow the new ordinance must face being charged with a class C misdemeanor.

The Austin City Council plans to launch a $2 million education campaign to enlighten customers of the provisions the new ordinance entails as well as to distribute reusable grocery bags for free in low-poverty areas of the city to lessen the burden on the poor.

While I do understand that bags often end up as litter on the side of the road and parks thus becoming harmful to the environment, I do not support the bag ban for several reasons.

The most prominent issue I have with this new ordinance is the $2 million that are going to be spent to teach Austinites how to follow the law. Retailers will put signs up to remind us to bring and use our reusable bags. Who’s going to pay for those signs? Will the costs of the new ordinance lead retailers to increase the costs of products and food to make up for their expenses to carry out the provisions of the bag ban?

The second issue I have with this new ordinance is sanitation. Employees will be touching hundreds, even thousands, of reusable bags per day and we know they won’t be washing their hands in between transactions. This can lead to the rapid spread of germs or cross-contamination of food.

My third issue is that some customers will inevitably forget to bring their reusable bags to the store. It is highly unlikely that the retailer will turn forgetful customers away. This means that customers will be walking out of stores with their purchased items unbagged. This will certainly lead to confusion and I think that a more significant consequence is that there may be an increase in shoplifting. Retailers will be forced to have their employees stationed at every exit to thoroughly check receipts. This will certainly result in aggravated customers and simply running to the grocery store will become a much more complicated and time-consuming errand.

My fourth and final issue with this bag ban is that plastic bags are used by many people and organizations. People often recycle plastic bags in their homes to be used as trash can liners and to clean up after pets. Many organizations that serve to clean our communities use them to reduce environmentally harmful litter.

As previously stated, I do not support the bag ban because it seems to lead to more problems than it solves. A better alternative would have been to enforce Austinites to recycle. This way money will be spent to teach them an extremely valuable practice instead of teaching them to follow the law.