Critics: Too many holes poked in plastic bag law

'SWING AND A MISS' | Recycling plan only targets some retailers

Chicago retailers who derive 25 percent of their gross sales from food or pharmaceuticals would be required to install plastic bag recycling bins — and distribute bags that state “Please reuse or recycle” — under a crackdown advanced Wednesday that aldermen called a “first step.”

If the New York-style ordinance doesn’t work to curb the flood of plastic bags stuck in trees, jamming landfills and waterways and choking birds and marine animals, Chicago could either broaden the mandate to more stores or ban plastic bags altogether, like San Francisco has done, aldermen said.

“Politics is the art of compromise. I don’t know that we could get 26 votes for an outright ban [right away]. That was my original proposal. But we have to start someplace. This is a good beginning…If that doesn’t work, we’ll go to the next step,” said Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th), chief sponsor.

Environmentalists had urged aldermen to take the bold step of imposing a tax of “10 cents or more” on plastic bags. A similar increase has been credited with reducing plastic bag usage by 94 percent in the Republic of Ireland.

But Burke said he was reluctant to do that on the heels of the $276.5 million in taxes, fines and fees that helped balance Mayor Daley’s 2008 budget.

“I’d like to avoid burdening the consumer as much as possible. Here we are looking at gas prices going sky high. I don’t think the citizens want to have some other tax on them — just like they don’t want to have a tax on their water bottle,” Burke said.

Three months ago, Burke and Ald. Marge Laurino (39th) dropped their push for a ban on plastic bags in favor of a watered-down version less costly and burdensome for retailers.

On Wednesday, the City Council’s Committee on Environmental Protection approved an even softer version that targets food and drug retailers most responsible for flooding the waste stream with plastic bags.

The old version mandated plastic bag recycling at retailers with at least 5,000 square feet of retail space and more than five locations. The new version applies the mandate to stores that derive 25 percent of their gross sales from food and pharmaceuticals.

They would be required to install plastic bag recycling bins in a “visible, easily accessible” location and to collect and recycle those bags “free of foreign material.”

Stores with less than 5,000 square feet of space would get nine months to exhaust their existing inventory of plastic bags before distributing bags bearing the mandatory label. Everybody else would get six months to comply.

Retailers would further be required to file reports with City Hall every two years outlining the weight of plastic bags collected and transported for recycling. The ordinance includes hefty fines for noncompliance.

Mike Nowak of the Chicago Recycling Coalition referred to the latest version as “New York lite” and a “swing and a miss.” He questioned why the Best Buys and Office Depots of the world were exempt.

“This is a first step. But let us not forget that the blue bag program was a first step that failed to produce a second step,” Nowak said.

Supporting the ordinance “with reluctance,” Nowak added, “The educational component is going to be huge. You must get the word out or this will not work….It’s like wearing a seatbelt. You have to train yourself” to use cloth or nylon re-usable bags.

The Department of Environment estimated that 20,000 businesses would be impacted by the new requirements.

Retailers helped draft the compromise and went along with it, even though they had expressed strong reservations about the cost. Plastic bags cost 2 cents apiece, compared to up to 6 cents for paper and as much as 14 cents for compostible plastic bags.

“Giving customers additional opportunities to recycle plastic bags is a step in the right direction to making recycling a part of our lifestyle,” Tanya Triche, a staff attorney for the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, wrote in a letter to aldermen. “It allows businesses the opportunity to continue to meet our customers’ demands by providing them with reusable and recyclable options that are convenient and have a more favorable impact on the environment.”