Bingen & White Salmon Checkout Bag Ordinances

October 2019: Bingen and White Salmon city councils unanimously passed Single-use Checkout Bag Ordinances.
March 2020: Washington State passed a similar statewide ordinance (SB 5323); effective June 1, 2020. 
See below for a version of the presentation that was presented to the City Council on July 17, 2019. 

Common Questions

How did you come up with this ordinance? Community Upcycle drafted the proposed ordinance based on research and best practices for waste reduction underlying similar ordinances across the country. We have also reached out to the WA Food Industries Association (which represents small grocers including Harvest Market and Rosauers) and Zero Waste WA (which collaborates at the state level with legislators on similar ordinances statewide), and we’ve incorporated their input to remain consistent with other ordinances across the state.

Why the ban and the fee? Simply put, by having customers pay for what they use, consumption rapidly declines. The ordinance calls for a required minimum 10¢ charge for a recycled paper or reusable plastic bag in order to encourage reuse, and avoid simply transferring the environmental burden to paper or thicker plastic.  This is a proven, effective model to reduce consumption and encourage customers to bring their own bags. Numerous studies worldwide repeatedly demonstrate effectiveness and importance of the charge. For example, back in 2011, Portland tried a plastic bag ban without the charge and saw paper bag use skyrocket by almost 500%. Such an increase in paper usage causes its own negative environmental consequences and, as such, a simple plastic bag ban cannot be seen as useful legislation for waste reduction. By contrast, California’s statewide ordinance, which included a 10¢ charge, resulted in customers bringing their own bags for 84% of all transactions AND paper bag use dropped by more than 60%.  

Are there other examples of government charging fees like this or setting a minimum sale price? Yes. Using market based incentives is a common approach in environmental legislation. Consider bottle bills, tire fees, or battery charges—all are examples of the government requiring a fee for an item to encourage change in behavior. In these examples, a fee is built into the purchase price and you get it back only if you recycle. The bag ordinance is similar except that if you take action first by "reducing" rather than recycling, you avoid the fee in the first place. Beer, distilled spirits and cigarettes also have restrictions prohibiting the retailer to sell at a price below acquisition cost. There are also various state and federal "unfair practices" laws to avoid price discrimination (e.g. Robinson-Patman Act,  a federal law designed to protect small retail shops against competition from chain stores by fixing a minimum price for retail products). States like Oregon, Hawaii, California, Vermont, Maine, Connecticut, as well as Washington DC, and hundreds of other municipalities have checkout bag ordinance that include a fee on disposable bags.  

Why not just leave it up to the retailers to decide what to charge? Like Portland’s experience demonstrates (see above), it just doesn’t work if retailers choose not to charge. Retailers also, understandably, tend to emphasize a positive customer dynamic, so they often turn to bag credits as an incentive for people to bring their own bag. Unfortunately, research shows those credits have virtually no effect whatsoever on motivating customers to bring their bags, but a minimal charge for disposable bags reliably decreases demand for them by more than half. (Promoting Reusable Checkout Bags in Portland One-Year Report, October 3, 2012, Portland Bureau of Planning & Sustainability.) 

Is this a tax?  The 10¢ charge is not a tax. If you buy something from a store, you pay the retailer for that item and pay sales tax to the state. Similarly, if you need to buy a checkout bag, you pay the retailer 10¢ for that item, and the state charges sales tax on the transaction ($.0075). This treats the bag as a regular commodity. The 10¢ stays with the retailer and is not a tax.

 Supporting Material - (Includes letter from WFIA about bag prices)


​References & Resources

PROPOSED ORDINANCE ​GENERAL
RELATED LEGISLATION
IMPACTS ON OCEANS, WILDLIFE OR HEALTH

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