Paper or plastic? Evanston mulls ban on both

April 26, 2011|By Dan Hinkel, Jonathan Bullington and Robert McCoppin, Tribune reporters

When it comes to paper or plastic, Evanston shoppers won't have to choose, if the city embraces a proposal that would eliminate both options.
In recent years, bans on plastic bags have taken hold in jurisdictions dotting the United States. Other communities have placed a tax on disposable bags to discourage consumption. In Evanston, City Council members on Monday discussed a potential ban on both paper and plastic.
If that were to pass, Evanston would become the first Illinois municipality to ban disposable bags, experts said. And a prohibition on paper would be among the most restrictive bag laws nationwide, they added.
While council members worried about the bags' environmental impact, some shoppers voiced trepidation about being boxed in by bag options.
"I think a ban would be more of a nuisance,'' shopper Tom Krebs said outside an Evanston Dominick's store. "I'm sure a lot of people would roll their eyes."

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Yet ban proponents on the council say the city needs to act.
"I hate plastic bags, and I'm prepared to vote tonight to eliminate plastic bags or brown paper bags — whatever it takes to get rid of them," said Ald. Ann Rainey.
The proposal remains in its infancy, and the logistics of how a ban would be implemented aren't clear. City officials plan to meet with small-business owners, national chain store representatives and residents to discuss the possible bag ban before revisiting the topic at a May 23 committee meeting.
Any restrictions would put Evanston in league with an expanding group of jurisdictions that have taken a variety of tacks toward coaxing shoppers to tote reusable bags.
San Francisco banned plastic bags outright in 2007, and a handful of other California municipalities have followed. North Carolina outlawed plastic bags on the islands of its Outer Banks, and Washington, D.C., levied a 5-cent tax on paper and plastic bags.
The city of Chicago requires retailers that offer plastic bags to reuse or recycle them.
No state has yet enacted a statewide ban, fee or tax on bags, but at least 11 states this year have proposed legislation on the topic, said Douglas Shinkle of the National Conference of State Legislatures. Bills governing bags have been shot down in various states in recent years, he said.
"This is a relatively fertile issue," he said. "Thus far, (restrictions on bags) haven't been successful, but who knows if that may change."