Posted on 05/02/2019 6:03:46 AM PDT by Right Wing Assault
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cuyahoga County Council is poised to pass a countywide ban on single-use plastic bags after all the members of a council committee on Wednesday voiced support for the ban.
Four members of the Education, Environment, and Sustainability Committee signed on as co-sponsors of the ban during the Wednesday hearing, and Council President Dan Brady told cleveland.com he expects the measure to pass.
Committee Chairwoman Sunny Simon and Councilman Dale Miller are the primary sponsors. Signing on Wednesday were Brady, Council Vice President Pernel Jones Jr., and councilwomen Shontel Brown and Cheryl Stephens, giving the measure the six votes needed for passage.
A simple majority of the 11-member council is needed to pass legislation.
Contacted Wednesday, a spokeswoman for County Executive Armond Budish could not immediately say whether Budish supports the measure or whether he would sign the ordinance into law.
If signed into law, the ban would go into effect on Oct. 1 to give retailers time to use up their supplies of plastic bags, and allow time for community education.
The last time Council attempted to curtail the use of plastic bags was a 2017 proposal by Simon and Miller that would have added a 10-cent fee per plastic and paper bag. But that measure faced heavy pushback and never made it to out of committee.
Brady on Wednesday said he believed the proposed ban had garnered a “broad consensus.”
Jones and Stephens said they have received calls and emails in support of the ban from both urban and suburban residents of the county.
Simon acknowledged that the ban would be a difficult change for county residents. But she said it was a necessary one, and likened the environment in America to Paris’ fire-damaged cathedral of Notre Dame.
“This is our cathedral,” she said. “Teddy Roosevelt saw this as something as a legacy that we have to preserve. This is our future.”
The ban applies to all single-use plastic bags and paper bags that are not 100 percent recyclable or made from at least 40 percent of recycled material.
The ban would not apply to plastic bags that customers bring with them to retailers, and bags used for carry-out orders of prepared food or restaurant leftovers.
It also would not apply to plastic bags used for newspapers, perishable items such as produce and meat, garbage, dry-cleaning, pet waste, prescription medication and bags provided at curbside pick-up or points of delivery and bags used for legally transporting partially-consumed bottles of wine.
Simon said Wednesday that a marketing campaign will be launched shortly to prepare residents for the change. And the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District is helping secure a grant so reusable bags can be provided to residents throughout the county, Simon said.
The ban would be enforced by the county’s Department of Consumer Affairs. First-time violators would be subject to a written warning. Second violations would carry a civil fine of up to $100 and subsequent violations would carry fines up to $500.Violations are defined as each day a retailer doesn’t comply with the ordinance.
Bet they will tax bag sales.
NYS just banned plastic grocery bags.
And counties are bring allowed to tax paper bags sold in grocery stores.
These politicians should stuff their heads into a plastic bag and tie it off with a cord around the neck.
Yep, in NYS the 5 cent fee is split 3 cents to government for social programs and 2 cents to the store for the bag. Another redistribution scam to save the environment.
Same people and ideology that told us we needed to have plastic bags 25 years ago. Now we don’t they say and will punish you by banning or taxing the use of them.
Cuomo & Legislators Will Ban Plastic Bags, Tax Paper in NY
Note to Trump: Suggestion for your campaign store, how about paper grocery bags with MAGA on them. I'd buy in bulk.
The country is being overrun by the “wisdom” of teenagers.
Typical big city/county government...useless human acne.
In other places, these bans have been so onerous on the public in general that they are being reversed. Even watermelons are sick of it.
We’ll either go over the border or buy our own paper bags. I hope Trump starts selling them. If not MAGA paper grocery bags, then MAGA reusable totes (very machine washable please since the damn things can be a disease vector).
Typical big city/county government...useless human acne.
Pretty soon they will just serve you food in your cupped hands or just take the shopping cart home with the groceries in it.
Now we go back to paper bags that I remember were so horrible because of all the tree killing.
Folks I give you the left, controlling every single part of our lives.
[[Brady on Wednesday said he believed the proposed ban had garnered a “broad consensus.” ]]
There’s that word again.
Has China and India banned plastic bags?
Paper bags also cost more to ship. Points of sale also have to reconfigured for the different shaped bags. People may bring bags that are differently sized.
What an expensive, unnecessary PITA.
Not ALL bags are banned, you notice.
Currently we used our own homemade cloth bags. Seeing all the plastic in landfills is saddening.
But I do not want the government to set the rules. If everyone simply tried to reduce plastics use, it would make a big difference.
Comments button did not work for me. Maybe you have to be a subscriber.
I use a paper bag for that.
When asked “paper or plastic?” my response was “wicker” or sometimes “stainless steel.” I then changed it to “Kryptonite.” I said I’d like a Kryptonite bag in case Superman was in the parking lot thinking that I owed him money.
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