Silverton bans plastic bags and polystyrene containers; could all of Oregon be next?

SILVERTON – Silverton joined the growing number of Oregon cities banning plastic bags and polystyrene containers when its city council voted Monday night.

Statewide bans on the products could be next.

“I think it’s a really encouraging sign that more cities are starting to ban single-use plastic bags,” said Celeste Meiffren-Swango, the state director for Environment Oregon. “It is making a really strong case that we should ban them state-wide.

“Actually, we at Environment Oregon are working on a bill this legislative session to ban polystyrene containers and takeout cups state-wide.”

Silverton becomes the 14th city in Oregon to ban plastic bags, and it is the fifth to ban polystyrene food containers.

State Senator James Manning is working on a bill to ban polystyrene as food containers for the upcoming session and State Representative Carla Piluso is working on a bill to ban plastic bags statewide.

“We’d like to have a statewide approach just again for consistency and for a statewide policy vs. different cities doing it different ways,” said Shawn Miller of the Northwest Grocery Association.

More:Oregon Legislature to weigh statewide plastic bag tax, single-use straw ban

“A lot of cities have taken our recommendations and have been very good to work with.”

With a 5-2 vote by its city council, Silverton joins Ashland, Bend, Corvallis, Eugene, Forest Grove, Hood River, Lake Oswego, Manzanita, McMinnville, Milwaukie, Newport, Portland and Salem in banning plastic bags.

In banning polystyrene containers with a 6-1 vote, Silverton joins cities in Oregon including Ashland, Florence, Medford, Milwaukie and Portland in banning polystyrene containers.

Portland was the first in Oregon to ban polystyrene containers when it did it in 1989. Eugene is considering a similar ban.

“There’s no other state that has actually banned polystyrene statewide,” Meiffren-Swango said. “Over 200 cities across the country have banned polystyrene, and we’re glad that Silverton is now one of them.”

Michael Roth, CEO and President of Roth’s Fresh Markets, said the Salem-based grocery chain with nine locations in the Willamette Valley has been eliminating the use of polystyrene in its stores despite the added cost.

“The cost of saving the environment is worth it,” Roth said.

As part of Silverton’s ordinance, stores must charge a 5 cent pass-through fee on paper bags similar to most cities that have passed plastic bag bans.

The Northwest Grocery Association said banning plastic bags without a pass-through fee increases costs for grocery stores by $35,000 to $60,000 per store each year.

Roth said plastic bags cost 3.6 cents while paper bags cost 12.3 cents. Roth’s gives customers a 5 cent refund for each bag they re-use.

"If you’re not moving people to reusables, you’re not really changing behavior, you’re just shifting one single-use bag to another, and that’s not the most sustainable policy,” Miller said.

Miller said Coos Bay is also considering a plastic bag ban and Tillamook and Washington Counties are as well.

In December, a state Senate committee voted to introduce a statewide 5 cent tax on single-use plastic bags used by retail stores and would require them to provide paper checkout bags, but different bills are expected to be presented in the session, which starts Jan. 22.

The State Legislature considered banning plastic bags in three previous sessions, but each of those efforts died in committee.

“I do think if there is one statewide policy, it just makes it easier for grocery chains to enforce it,” Mieffren-Swango said.

“From our perspective, it just means if I’m visiting my parents in Astoria, if I go to a Fred Meyer the experience is the same as if I go to the Fred Meyer in Portland where I live.”

Stores in Silverton will still be able to offer plastic bags for bulk foods such as fruits, vegetables, candy, hardware or as wrapping for foods to safeguard public health, such as with raw meat.

Silverton’s plastic bag and polystyrene ban take effect Feb. 5, but enforcement won’t begin until July 1.

Foods that are prepackaged and sealed are exempt from the polystyrene ban, and raw meat and seafood can use polystyrene containers until January 1, 2020.

Retail establishments may receive a six-month exemption from the plastic bag ban if they can show how it creates an undue hardship.

In Salem’s plastic bag ban, which was voted in Nov. 26, larger stores must comply by April 1 while smaller businesses can wait until Sept. 1.

bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com or Twitter.com/bpoehler