Providence bag ban begins Tuesday

PROVIDENCE — Stores in Providence will have to stop giving single-use plastic bags to customers on Tuesday, when the city’s plastic bag ban officially takes effect.

The ordinance, which passed the Providence City Council in April, is meant to reduce plastic bag waste and encourage shoppers to carry reusable bags.

Specialty bags, such as those used to hold laundry and dry-cleaning, newspapers, produce, frozen foods, meat and fish, will be exempt from the ban.

Establishments can also apply for exemptions if they demonstrate unique circumstances or need additional time to use an existing inventory of checkout bags.

As of Friday afternoon, 20 businesses had applied for exemptions, according to Victor Morente, spokesman for Mayor Jorge Elorza’s office. Twelve of the applications had been approved and eight were in review.

The city spent a total of $16,997 on outreach to educate retailers and community members about the ordinance, including $13,000 on radio promotion, particularly targeting Spanish-speaking stations; $1,378 on newspaper ads; $500 on social media; and $2,199 on a poster-printing campaign, according to Emily Crowell, spokeswoman for Elorza. The city's Office of Sustainability called 67 establishments over the summer and conducted business visits with the mayor.

Zero Waste Providence, a volunteer group working to reduce plastic waste in the city, organized a reusable bag swap, where residents can leave a reusable bag or pick one up for free at nearly all of the Providence Community Library locations. 

Retailers will have some leeway after Tuesday, but if a business owner fails to come into compliance after a few months, the city will issue an initial fine of $50 and subsequent fines of $100, said Leah Bamberger, the city’s director of sustainability.

“The goal really is to make sure folks are aware of the policy, especially within the next few months,” she said.

The council passed a similar ordinance in 2018, but Elorza vetoed it over concerns that it would place an undue burden on low-income communities because it required retailers to charge a fee for replacement bags. The new ordinance does not include such a requirement. 

City staff will conduct spot checks on stores, but will also rely on residents to report non-compliant business owners through the PVD3-1-1 system, which allows residents to file complaints via phone, on the website or through the app, Bamberger said. 

Teddy Topouzis, the owner of Royal Lunch, on Westminster Street, was preparing on Friday afternoon to reopen his restaurant after an extended trip to Greece. He had not heard about the plastic bag ban, but said he would probably switch to paper bags, even though they can be slightly more difficult to use with takeout because of their shape and structure.

“We adjust,” he said.

Some of the city’s larger retailers, like CVS and Stop & Shop, said they would eliminate the use of plastic bags in their stores on Tuesday and offer paper bags to customers at no charge.

Stop & Shop spokeswoman Jennifer Brogan wrote in an email that the corporation would give away free reusable bags to the first 300 customers who visit each of its three Providence locations, including East Side Market, on Tuesday.

Other stores in Providence have been ahead of the curve and won’t need to make any changes come Tuesday.

John Santos, general manager of Urban Greens, a co-op market that opened on Cranston Street in June, said the store has never given out plastic bags at checkout, and also takes other steps to reduce plastic waste.

For example, all of the cutlery in the market’s prepared foods section is made of sugarcane and is compostable, Santos said. Food items, such as rice, beans and nuts, are available for purchase in bulk and customers can bring their own containers to fill up. Customers can also bring their own bottles to fill with certain drinks, like kombucha and nitro cold brew coffee, which is offered from a tap, he said.

“We recognize the consequences of plastic in the waste stream,” he said. “We don’t want to contribute to that.”

Santos said he sees other retailers moving toward some of the practices already in place at Urban Greens because they are becoming more popular with consumers.

 “The bag ban is tapping into a national movement beyond recycling, it’s more sustainability,” he said.

— mlist@providencejournal.com

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On Twitter: @madeleine_list