Plastic checkout bags have been in production since the early 1980's and have become a beacon of convenience for consumers, but in recent years, they have also been a cause of much pollution in our communities, waterways, sewage systems and recycling plants.

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Proposed plastic bag ban will be popular – and under assault

Since 2007, environmental advocates including TCE have been pushing for a plastic bag ban in Austin. Some retailers and plastic bag companies pushed for a voluntary program instead. From January 2008 through June 2009, the voluntary program was to reduce plastic bags in Austin's waste stream by 50%. Unfortunately, this goal was not met.

In 2010, TCE and the Austin Zero Waste Alliance pushed for the City to quantify the costs of plastic bag pollution and the City staff has determined that the city now spends $850,000 annually and that local businesses probably spent twice as much. This only covers the costs borne by the City – not the state, federal government or unquantifiable costs to wildlife and the environment.

Click here to read the official City Plastic Bag Cost Findings.

In the meantime, the City of Brownsville became the first city in Texas to act. Brownsville banned plastic and paper single-use check-out bags, which took effect in January 2011 after a year of planning. South Padre Island followed suit and Fort Stockton in West Texas banned plastic bags. The City of Brownsville has estimated that their ordinance has cut the number of bags by 375,000 per day.

Click here to read the City of Brownsville's Single-Use Bag Ordinance.

On August 4, 2011, the Austin City Council voted unanimously to instruct city staff to draft an ordinance to address single-use bag pollution. TCE and other advocates are pushing for the inclusion of paper bags in the final ordinance and requesting the city do a study on the societal and environmental impacts of paper bags, as it did with plastic bags. Seeing as paper bags cost four times as much, take up more landfill room when not recycled and use more natural resources during manufacturing than plastic bags, the inclusion of paper bags in the ordinance would be the most comprehensive plan.

Click here to read the City of Austin's Resolution instructing city staff to draft an ordinance addressing single-use bags.

Hays County advocates are also working with the City Council in San Marcos to craft a single-use bag ordinance.