Fox Valley Sierra Group Plastic Bags

There is a debate about plastic bags. Many people believe plastic bags should be banned.

Some cities in California have banned plastic bags from being used by stores. Wisconsin is also considering such a ban.

Information from late January of 2008:

Co-Sponsorship of LRB-3774/3 & LRB-3907/2– Plastic Bag Ban (relating to: regulating the provision of certain plastic bags to customers of retailers of consumer goods and granting rule making authority.)

This bill would ban retail stores from providing non-compostable (non-biodegradable) plastic bags to consumers. There are as many as one trillion plastic bags used around the world each year. Only 1-5 percent of those bags are recycled, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The remainder end up stuck in trees, at the bottom of our lakes and streams or in landfills. It takes 1,000 years for the average plastic petroleum based bag to decompose, compared to one month for a paper bag.

Furthermore, the production of the average plastic bag includes petroleum, cementing our dependence on foreign oil. On the other hand, compostable plastic bags would create a market for Wisconsin farm products used in the process of creating compostable plastic bags and benefit the environment while reducing our reliance on foreign oil.

Because of their harmful environmental impact and reliance on crude oil, countries across the world are cracking down on plastic bags. Australia, Italy, South Africa, and India have all passed laws designed to curb the use of plastic bags. Ireland passed a tax on the bags that has reduced its usage by 90 percent while China outright banned the use of the bags. China estimates that it will save approximately 37 million barrels of crude oil through their ban.

This month, Whole Foods, the nation's largest natural foods grocer, stated they will stop giving out disposable plastic bags at their checkout counters in all of their 270 outlets in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. because of the harmful effects of plastic bags upon our environment and our economy. Banning plastic bags in Wisconsin will encourage other retailers to follow in the footsteps of Whole Foods and use biodegradable plastic or paper bags.

If you would like to sign on to this bill please call Representative Pocan's office at 266-8570 or Senator Jauch's office at 266-3510 by 5 PM January 30, 2008. The co-sponsor lists from both offices will be combined for the Assembly (LRB-3774/3) and Senate (LRB-3907/2) drafts of the bill, unless a legislator otherwise specifies.

Analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau
This bill prohibits a person who is engaged in the retail sale of goods for personal, family, or household use from providing a plastic bag for a customer's purchases unless the bag is compostable or reusable. This prohibition takes effect three years after the bill's publication date.

See story in The Capital Times

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