Manufacturers are starting to skirt bans by making plastic shopping bags thicker
By JOANNA DETZ/ecoRI News staff
LOS ANGELES — It had been a busy day, and, as new mom and UCLA internal medicine fellow Alissa Detz stepped into Ralph’s, an LA grocery chain, to pick up a few items, she realized she had forgotten to bring her reusable shopping bag.
At the register, Detz was prepared to pay for a paper shopping bag, as per Los Angeles County’s recently instated plastic bag ban, which stipulates that stores charge a fee for paper bags. However, she was taken aback when the cashier offered to sell her a plastic bag instead.
“I was really surprised to be offered a plastic bag several months after the ban went into effect,” she said. “I had gotten used to bringing my own bags and had thought that only paper bags or reusable bags would be available to buy if I forgot my own.”
In fact, the plastic bag the cashier offered Detz for 15 cents was billed as “reusable,” but it wasn’t one of those sturdy, squared-off reusable totes that stores sell for a dollar or two. It was, however, made of a heavier plastic than its banned counterparts.
Detz mailed ecoRI News the bag in question (disclaimer: Detz is this reporter’s younger sister). The Ralph’s plastic bag, which has a picture of footprints on a sandy beach and carries the message “Lower Your Footprint” also has a claim stamped on the bottom, touting the bag as “ordinance compliant.” The message advises that the bag can be washed with dish soap and water, hung upside down to dry and reused.
Further research by ecoRI News found that the plastic bag, which is 2.25 mils thick, (a mil is a thousandth of an inch) is considered reusable under the current LA law because of its thickness. The law states that a reusable bag is defined as “a bag with handles that has a minimum lifetime of 125 uses, can carry 22 pounds over a distance of at least 175 feet and is a minimum of at least 2.25 mils thick.”
Reusable by law, but are these ban-compliant plastic bags actually being used more than once?
ecoRI News attempted to contact Ralph’s vice president of public relations, Kendra Doyel, for comment twice by phone and by e-mail to see if customers are actually reusing the plastic bags the store is offering. Doyel failed to respond to the questions.
In Brookline, Mass., which also has a ban on plastic bags, a similar scenario played out when Pier 1 Imports on Beacon Street introduced ban-compliant plastic shopping bags that are 2.25 mils thick, and thus qualify as reusable under Brookline’s ordinance.
The proliferation of heavier plastic bags is an outcome that many bag-ban proponents didn’t see see coming.
“Increasing the thickness of bags was not the result we were hoping for,” said Clint Richmond, co-chair of the Green Caucus of Brookline Town Meeting members, who helped craft the town’s plastic bag ban. “Communities are responding to those businesses seeking to avoid bans.”
Richmond advised communities currently developing bans on plastic bags to increase reusable bag thickness to 3 mils. In fact, Marblehead, Mass., has crafted its ban to include bags up to a thickness of 3 mils.
But does this mean we will begin to see 3-mil ban-compliant plastic shopping bags?
Across the country, bans have indeed spurred a sort of arms race between those seeking to do away with petroleum-based plastic bags and the companies that manufacture them, with each side ratcheting up thickness standards as they try to outmaneuver one another.
Roplast Industries, the manufacturer that produces Ralph’s plastic shopping bags, has devoted an entire page of its website to ban-compliant plastic shopping bags.
On its website, Roplast states, “We have several independent tests that verify the attributes and strength of our bags, but more importantly, that they are legal.”
Channing Jones, campaign director of Environment Rhode Island, an advocacy group that is lobbying to pass a statewide plastic bag ban in the Ocean State this year, found the steps being taken by industry to avoid bans alarming.
“It's certainly concerning that a similar definition is being exploited by some LA retailers to skirt the intent of the policy,” Jones wrote in an e-mail to ecoRI News. “Given this intel from LA County, Rhode Island lawmakers might consider amending our bill to increase the thickness requirement beyond 2.25 mils. Then, lawmakers should schedule the bill for a vote this session.”
The wording of the Rhode Island plastic bag bill defines a “reusable bag" as "a bag with handles that is specifically designed and manufactured for multiple reuse and is made of cloth or other fabric or is made of durable plastic that is at least two and a quarter (2.25) mils thick.”
Barrington, R.I., which recently made its temporary plastic bag ban permanent, requires that reusable bags have a minimum 2.25-mil thickness.
At the register, Detz was prepared to pay for a paper shopping bag, as per Los Angeles County’s recently instated plastic bag ban, which stipulates that stores charge a fee for paper bags. However, she was taken aback when the cashier offered to sell her a plastic bag instead.
“I was really surprised to be offered a plastic bag several months after the ban went into effect,” she said. “I had gotten used to bringing my own bags and had thought that only paper bags or reusable bags would be available to buy if I forgot my own.”
In fact, the plastic bag the cashier offered Detz for 15 cents was billed as “reusable,” but it wasn’t one of those sturdy, squared-off reusable totes that stores sell for a dollar or two. It was, however, made of a heavier plastic than its banned counterparts.
Detz mailed ecoRI News the bag in question (disclaimer: Detz is this reporter’s younger sister). The Ralph’s plastic bag, which has a picture of footprints on a sandy beach and carries the message “Lower Your Footprint” also has a claim stamped on the bottom, touting the bag as “ordinance compliant.” The message advises that the bag can be washed with dish soap and water, hung upside down to dry and reused.
Further research by ecoRI News found that the plastic bag, which is 2.25 mils thick, (a mil is a thousandth of an inch) is considered reusable under the current LA law because of its thickness. The law states that a reusable bag is defined as “a bag with handles that has a minimum lifetime of 125 uses, can carry 22 pounds over a distance of at least 175 feet and is a minimum of at least 2.25 mils thick.”
Reusable by law, but are these ban-compliant plastic bags actually being used more than once?
ecoRI News attempted to contact Ralph’s vice president of public relations, Kendra Doyel, for comment twice by phone and by e-mail to see if customers are actually reusing the plastic bags the store is offering. Doyel failed to respond to the questions.
In Brookline, Mass., which also has a ban on plastic bags, a similar scenario played out when Pier 1 Imports on Beacon Street introduced ban-compliant plastic shopping bags that are 2.25 mils thick, and thus qualify as reusable under Brookline’s ordinance.
The proliferation of heavier plastic bags is an outcome that many bag-ban proponents didn’t see see coming.
“Increasing the thickness of bags was not the result we were hoping for,” said Clint Richmond, co-chair of the Green Caucus of Brookline Town Meeting members, who helped craft the town’s plastic bag ban. “Communities are responding to those businesses seeking to avoid bans.”
Richmond advised communities currently developing bans on plastic bags to increase reusable bag thickness to 3 mils. In fact, Marblehead, Mass., has crafted its ban to include bags up to a thickness of 3 mils.
But does this mean we will begin to see 3-mil ban-compliant plastic shopping bags?
Across the country, bans have indeed spurred a sort of arms race between those seeking to do away with petroleum-based plastic bags and the companies that manufacture them, with each side ratcheting up thickness standards as they try to outmaneuver one another.
Roplast Industries, the manufacturer that produces Ralph’s plastic shopping bags, has devoted an entire page of its website to ban-compliant plastic shopping bags.
On its website, Roplast states, “We have several independent tests that verify the attributes and strength of our bags, but more importantly, that they are legal.”
Channing Jones, campaign director of Environment Rhode Island, an advocacy group that is lobbying to pass a statewide plastic bag ban in the Ocean State this year, found the steps being taken by industry to avoid bans alarming.
“It's certainly concerning that a similar definition is being exploited by some LA retailers to skirt the intent of the policy,” Jones wrote in an e-mail to ecoRI News. “Given this intel from LA County, Rhode Island lawmakers might consider amending our bill to increase the thickness requirement beyond 2.25 mils. Then, lawmakers should schedule the bill for a vote this session.”
The wording of the Rhode Island plastic bag bill defines a “reusable bag" as "a bag with handles that is specifically designed and manufactured for multiple reuse and is made of cloth or other fabric or is made of durable plastic that is at least two and a quarter (2.25) mils thick.”
Barrington, R.I., which recently made its temporary plastic bag ban permanent, requires that reusable bags have a minimum 2.25-mil thickness.
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