Posted on 05/02/2019 6:03:46 AM PDT by Right Wing Assault
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cuyahoga County Council is poised to pass a countywide ban on single-use plastic bags after all the members of a council committee on Wednesday voiced support for the ban.
Four members of the Education, Environment, and Sustainability Committee signed on as co-sponsors of the ban during the Wednesday hearing, and Council President Dan Brady told cleveland.com he expects the measure to pass.
Committee Chairwoman Sunny Simon and Councilman Dale Miller are the primary sponsors. Signing on Wednesday were Brady, Council Vice President Pernel Jones Jr., and councilwomen Shontel Brown and Cheryl Stephens, giving the measure the six votes needed for passage.
A simple majority of the 11-member council is needed to pass legislation.
Contacted Wednesday, a spokeswoman for County Executive Armond Budish could not immediately say whether Budish supports the measure or whether he would sign the ordinance into law.
If signed into law, the ban would go into effect on Oct. 1 to give retailers time to use up their supplies of plastic bags, and allow time for community education.
The last time Council attempted to curtail the use of plastic bags was a 2017 proposal by Simon and Miller that would have added a 10-cent fee per plastic and paper bag. But that measure faced heavy pushback and never made it to out of committee.
Brady on Wednesday said he believed the proposed ban had garnered a “broad consensus.”
Jones and Stephens said they have received calls and emails in support of the ban from both urban and suburban residents of the county.
Simon acknowledged that the ban would be a difficult change for county residents. But she said it was a necessary one, and likened the environment in America to Paris’ fire-damaged cathedral of Notre Dame.
“This is our cathedral,” she said. “Teddy Roosevelt saw this as something as a legacy that we have to preserve. This is our future.”
The ban applies to all single-use plastic bags and paper bags that are not 100 percent recyclable or made from at least 40 percent of recycled material.
The ban would not apply to plastic bags that customers bring with them to retailers, and bags used for carry-out orders of prepared food or restaurant leftovers.
It also would not apply to plastic bags used for newspapers, perishable items such as produce and meat, garbage, dry-cleaning, pet waste, prescription medication and bags provided at curbside pick-up or points of delivery and bags used for legally transporting partially-consumed bottles of wine.
Simon said Wednesday that a marketing campaign will be launched shortly to prepare residents for the change. And the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District is helping secure a grant so reusable bags can be provided to residents throughout the county, Simon said.
The ban would be enforced by the county’s Department of Consumer Affairs. First-time violators would be subject to a written warning. Second violations would carry a civil fine of up to $100 and subsequent violations would carry fines up to $500.Violations are defined as each day a retailer doesn’t comply with the ordinance.
ping
Wait a minute. Climate freaks have been asking for ways to sequester carbon. Burying it does the job.
I asked a climate fanatic I know, "Isn't burying plastic bags good since it sequesters carbon a good thing?" Answer, "Uh, that's a good question."
The suburbs of Cleveland, in and out of Cuyahoga County, have sustained the region. The county and the City of Cleveland overall are corrupt cesspools.
I am moving back to the region one day to retire (insert snark here), but will never buy in the county despite many, many great suburban cities. That makes me and Mrs. Birdman sad.
Makes me want to drive up there and start handing out plastic bags with Chief Wahoo’s picture on them.
Basically right half of the Bell Curve Democrats punishing in an obtuse fashion Democrats on the left half of the Bell Curve.
No true conservative would seek to divide the D party it is not who we are.
All of my plastic bags are multiple use. Small trash can liners, dog cleanup, recycled at store, collecting cleanup rags and paper towels, storing brass, lots of second uses.
I don’t know about anyone else, but most of the plastic bags I get are from the grocery store. They become kitchen garbage bags for the little bin that hangs off the under-sink cabinet door. If I didn’t get these, I would have to buy special-purpose plastic bags for the purpose. How does that make anything better?
What is their goal here? It’s not like the sea of plastic in the ocean is coming from Ohio (or much of it from on-land garbage in north America in general). We’re not China or India, we don’t have tons of plastic garbage dumped in our rivers to float out to sea. The one major problem I see with plastic bags is that they become an eyesore when they are discarded carelessly or get away, ending up stuck in trees, bushes, fences, etc.
Yet, wrapping up biodegradable pet poo in plastic is ok.
BTW, all, I forgot to add this: In NYS, WIC and SNAP recipients are exempted from paying the paper bag tax.
If it is a “countrywide ban” doesn’t it apply to all states?
Ah, well, of course they are exempt. They don’t have to pay for anything.
Nobody’s that stupid.
For well over a dozen years, single use plastic bags have been required to be manufactured with plastic that has about 10% starch in it. Once exposed to weather, bacteria and sunlight the starch breaks down quickly and the plastic particles left are dispersed. The plastic is then subject to UV degradation and breaks down even further. Why do you think grocery bags that are over 6 months old rip and split so easily?
*** This is a problem that does not need a solution ***, especially a stupid solution like that foisted on society by liberals that have not examined the problem, but who want to feel good about themselves.
“Yet, wrapping up biodegradable pet poo in plastic is ok.”
For well over a dozen years, single use plastic bags have been required to be manufactured with plastic that has about 10% starch in it. Once exposed to weather, bacteria and sunlight, the starch breaks down quickly and the plastic particles left are dispersed. The plastic is then subject to UV degradation and breaks down even further. Why do you think grocery bags that are over 6 months old rip and split so easily?
Biodegradable pet poo is a perfect application for biodegradable single use plastic bags.
These fools passed the law requiring the starch additive, now they’ve forgotten what they legislated and want to legislate some more.
IF I take a bunch of my new kitchen trash bags INTO the store when I shop & put my purchases into those bags-—then what?
...my city is gone!...
It's countywide.
“Single use” my ass.
First they banned perfectly good paper sacks. A renewable resource (pulpwood). (No Susie, they aren’t logging the Sequoia to make grocery bags.)
In their stead, everyone was forced to use these plastic sacks. But they are always and ever referred to as “single use”, most people use them for all kinds of things. It’s amazing how often government “solves” the problems they created un-necessarily in the first place. Job security I guess.
Consensus is another word for lack of leadership.
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