Philly has bagged its bag ban. For now.
City Council yesterday voted down a measure - two years in the making - that would have nixed carry-home plastic bags from major stores, allowing only paper, compostable plastic, and reusable bags.
The 10-6 vote came after the environmental committee earlier this year withdrew a similar bill, which would have enacted a 25-cent fee on plastic bags.
But the bill's supporters vowed that the battle of the bags is far from over and that they would work all the harder to, as Councilman James Kenney put it, "catch up with the world."
Even Councilman Darrell L. Clarke, who voted against yesterday's measure, said he was "prepared to continue to engage. I do think something should be done."
Worldwide, prompted by concerns about litter and the environmental cost of widespread use of thin-film disposable-plastic bags, about a dozen nations have enacted bans or similar measures. So have companies such as Ikea and Whole Foods.
Earlier this month, Achim Steiner, executive director of the U.N. Environment Programme, said the bags "should be banned or phased out rapidly everywhere. There is simply zero justification for manufacturing them anymore, anywhere."
His statements accompanied a report assessing marine litter in the 12 major regional seas around the world.
In May, State Sen. Daylin Leach (D., Montgomery/Delaware) introduced a bill calling for a two-cent fee on plastic bags given out by larger stores. It has been referred to the finance committee.
"We are using these plastic bags, which last for hundreds and hundreds of years, unnecessarily. There are alternatives," he said yesterday. Similar bills have been introduced in New Jersey.
Several other U.S. cities have proposed similar measures; Baltimore is considering a 25-cent fee. First was San Francisco, which successfully enacted a ban in 2007, but since then, the industry has fought back hard.
Seattle passed a 20-cent fee on plastic in 2008, but in the weeks following, the industry sent a phalanx of out-of-state workers to town to gather signatures for petitions that would derail the measure, said Heather Trim of People for Puget Sound, an advocacy group.
The move was successful, and now Seattle voters will decide the question in an August ballot measure.
In other places, the plastics industry has filed legal action against bag fees or bans.
Saying they were appalled at the aggressive tactics, Council members launched a few salvos of their own yesterday.
