Bag ban still needs public survey

Thurston County is moving ahead with research to determine how well our community’s nearly two-year-old ban on disposable plastic shopping bags is working to reduce waste and litter.

Key data to be collected include financial impacts the ban has had on local businesses. For instance, supermarkets were required to switch to paper bags and in most cases to charge customers a nickel per bag.

An online survey is under way for merchants to enter comments.

Other work will evaluate the effectiveness of the ban including reductions in litter and waste and comparisons with other jurisdictions.

The efforts are promised pieces of the original county bag-ban ordinance that took effect in July 2014. Similar ordinances adopted in Thurston County, Olympia, Lacey and Tumwater outlawed the use of disposable plastic or single-use carryout bags for retail stores with exemptions such as for take-out food.

Thurston County Solid Waste is overseeing the work by consultant Cunningham Environmental of Bainbridge Island.

This is all good, but one thing is missing. It makes sense also to survey residents’ views to see whether they are happy with the law.

County commissioners have mentioned that option in the past as a possibility, but they’ve dropped it for now. Commissioners Sandra Romero and Cathy Wolfe say they went back to check the requirements of the original county ordinance, and a public opinion survey was not required.

First, Wolfe said, they want to see what the research underway shows about the ban.

The county did do an unscientific online survey six months after the ban took effect. The ban remains controversial in Lacey, and critics cited opposition in the online survey to support the notion the public doesn’t want it.

Jeff Gadman, a Lacey City Council member who opposed putting the issue up for a city vote, has said he wanted to wait for a county survey of opinions. Gadman may wait longer than he expected.

Anecdotally the bag ban seems to be working. Fewer waste bags appear to blow down streets, ending up in ditches, gullies or open spaces. The public appears to be adjusting to paper bags or taking reusable bags to the store. And fewer bags are clogging equipment at the landfill, according to members of the county solid waste advisory committee.

Once the survey data are in, it should become clearer whether the bag ban has made a worthwhile difference, and that might help inform public opinion. Fortunately, Romero isn’t ruling out asking the public its views.

“I can say that anything is possible,” she said. “You never say never. That is kind of a rule of thumb.”

That’s tantalizing but we’d rather see a commitment.

This story was originally published May 12, 2016 at 6:25 PM with the headline "Bag ban still needs public survey."