Bag it

Plastic Bag Ban Bill Introduced Again

By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI.org News staff

PROVIDENCE — Efforts to make Rhode Island the first state with a bag ban recently took a step forward. For the second straight year, Rep. Maria Cimini, D-Providence, has sponsored the Plastic Waste Reduction Act, a bill that would ban retailers from offering most checkout plastic bags.

The ban would apply to plastic bags offered at point of sale, including take-out food. The ban doesn't apply to produce and frozen-food bags, dry-cleaning bags, newspaper sleeves or bags bigger than 28 by 36 inches. This year’s bill omits a fee on paper checkout bags.

A first-time violation would result in a written warning from local police or other authority. A second violation would invoke a $150 fine and $300 for subsequent violations.

Channing Jones, campaign director with Environment Rhode Island, led the signature drive through door-to-door canvassing and an online petition. This year, Jones submitted a petition to lawmakers with another 10,000 signatures from Rhode Island supporters of such a ban.

Environment Rhode Island was instrumental in helping pass a two-year bag ban in Barrington, which began in 2013. About 100 communities in the United States have some form of restrictions on plastic checkout bags.

Last year, House and Senate versions of the bill died in committee. Supporters of the ban say discarded plastic bags harm the environment, especially aquatic habitats such as the Narragansett Bay watershed.

“Nothing we use for five minutes should pollute (Narragansett) Bay for 500 years,” Jones wrote in an e-mail.

Opponents to the 2013 legislation included a restaurant owner, the Rhode Island Retail Federation, American Progressive Bag Alliance and the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation, which manages the Central Landfill in Johnston.

The latest bill heads to the House Committee on the Environment and Natural Resources. No date has been announced for a hearing.