Dallas Morning News Op-Ed
Zac Trahan, Texas Campaign for the Environment
Molly Rooke, Dallas Sierra Club
Love it or hate it, Dallas’ single-use bag ordinance is working.
The evidence is in: The 5-cent fee on disposable shopping bags has vastly reduced the sheer number of bags Dallas retailers and consumers are churning through. There’s been a massive decrease — probably in the tens of millions of single-use bags — in just the first few months of 2015. So let’s pat ourselves on the back a little, Dallas!
Rather than innovate and change to more reusable products, plastic bag manufacturers have responded by filing a lawsuit against the city. They’re clinging to the notion that Texans will always consume billions of single-use bags each year. But the trend shows otherwise, and it should continue. If manufacturers succeed in stopping the bag fee, the Dallas City Council should respond by phasing out single-use bags altogether to keep this progress going.
Let’s start with the hard numbers. Dallas retailers indicated through their fee remittance payments that they distributed roughly 11 million single-use bags at a nickel each during the first three months of 2015. Not all retailers are following the rules, so that may be an underestimate.
However, the expected number of bags used in Dallas during the quarter, based on a national estimate that the average American uses 335 disposable bags each year, would have been about 90 million bags. The ordinance is having an undeniable impact.
Thanks to a recent Dallas Morning News poll, we also know that almost 60 percent of Dallas residents now say they’re bringing their own bags to the store. Anyone can go into any major retailer in Dallas today and see the difference: So many more people have reusable bags. In some stores, reusable bags are the norm and single-use bags are the exception. It was the opposite before the ordinance. And at smaller stores, many people just carry their snacks or soda or other items in their hands.
This new ordinance is already making a visible difference. We’re seeing fewer single-use bags litter our neighborhoods. We’re finding less plastic bag pollution in our waterways. A friend who regularly canoes the Trinity River recently told us, “It’s like someone turned off the spigot.”
As strong proponents for a cleaner, greener city, we think it’s great that Dallas has chosen to be a leader on this issue. That’s having an impact too: The Balch Springs City Council is now considering a single-use bag ordinance as well. Laredo just put its bag ordinance into effect April 30. Port Aransas will put its into effect in January. The list of Texas cities taking action is steadily growing, and that’s what has the bag manufacturers scared.
Rules on disposable shopping bags have initially created some controversy everywhere they’ve been implemented. That’s understandable because it affects our daily lives. Luckily, it’s not that complicated. Just bring your own bags to the grocery store. If you forget and you want to use disposable bags in Dallas, you’ll pay a nominal fee that will serve as a reminder for next time while giving the city some money to educate residents and clean up litter in our communities.
A recent study from the Journal of Environmental Psychology suggests that the simple act of taking a split second to think about paying for single-use bags can deactivate our “autopilot” mode for just long enough to remind us about the connections between our everyday actions and long-term environmental sustainability.
Dallas is ahead of the curve on this particular litter and pollution problem. Rather than struggle against this positive change, we should think about what we can do next. For instance, the city should pass an ordinance so that all apartments and businesses offer recycling programs for their residents and tenants. That’s where most of our waste is coming from.
So how about it, Dallas? We’ve taken a step toward a cleaner environment. Let’s keep going.
Zac Trahan is the statewide program director for Texas Campaign for the Environment. Molly Rooke is a member of the Dallas Sierra Club.
Tags: single-use bags
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