[V]ermonters may want to double down on efforts to remember their reusable bags next year if a bill approved by the Senate becomes law.
Senators voted on Friday 27-3 in favor of S.113, which would prohibit stores and restaurants from providing single-use plastic bags to customers and require they charge 10 cents or more for single-use paper bags. If enacted, the bill would be the most comprehensive single-use plastic waste state law in the country, according to VPIRG.
The bill must get final approval next week from the Senate before it goes to the House. Gov. Phil Scott has said he is “not opposed” to the plastic bag ban, though he raised concerns about the paper bag fee.
Under the Senate bill, retailers would also be banned from providing coffee cups, takeout containers and other food containers made from “expanded polystyrene foam,” commonly known as styrofoam. Certain foam products, like egg cartons and packaging for raw meat and seafood, would still be allowed.
The bill also requires that restaurants only provide plastic straws to customers upon request. The bag ban and other changes would go into effect in July of next year.
Sen. Chris Bray, D-Addison, said on the Senate floor Friday the bill would “start making modest but important first steps” to better manage plastics. He added that plastic use has increased by 900 percent globally from 1975-2015.
“There is an epidemic, a huge challenge we face (from) the impacts of plastic waste on our environment, on our wildlife and on humans,” said Alison Clarkson, D-Windsor, who supported the bill.
Due to growing concerns about plastic pollution, especially in oceans, bans on single-use plastics have started taking effect worldwide. The European Union voted Wednesday to ban single-use cutlery, straws and plates in member states in 2021.
Sen. Philip Baruth, D-Chittenden, asked Bray to explain the reasoning to charge for paper bags. Bray said in places where plastic bag bans had gone into effect with no charge on paper, the governing bodies found they had “changed the nature of the problem, but now they had more paper waste to deal with.” While paper can be recycled more easily, supporters of the bill say the aim is to also encourage more use of reusable bags.
Sen. Michael Sirotkin, D-Chittenden, expressed support for the bill but voiced some concerns about the impact the charge on paper bags could have on lower income Vermonters. He said that a [similar ban] passed by New York lawmakers Thursday allows retailers to charge 5 cents per paper bag and excludes lower income people from having to pay the fee.
“I think it’s going to come as sticker shock and some people in our communities may be questioning our reasoning for doing this,” he said.
Residents in Burlington, Manchester and Middlebury voted this Town Meeting Day to urge city leaders to take action on single-use plastics. Brattleboro became the first town in the state to ban single use plastic bags this summer and some businesses around the state have already adopted a “straws upon request” policy.
Erin Sigrist of the Vermont Retailers and Grocers Association, which represents more than 700 businesses in the state, has said that VRGA would prefer statewide legislation to a “patchwork” of different town-by-town requirements. However, she told senators last month that VRGA favors a House single-use bag bill, H.506, that would allow retailers to charge 5 cents for both paper and plastic carryout bags, with a ban on both starting next July.
One of the Senate bill’s other targets — expanded polystyrene foam — has gained notoriety for its lengthy breakdown time and challenges to recycle. The absorbent foam acts as a sponge for other pollutants, which has scientists concerned about the impact it could have on fish and other animals that eat pieces of it.
More than 200 municipalities and counties have banned or restricted expanded polystyrene containers, according to the Vermont Public Interest Research Group. Lawmakers in Maryland have passed the nation’s first ban on expanded polystyrene foam containers, which is still awaiting the governor’s signature.
Paul Burns, executive director of VPIRG — an environmental groups advocating to reduce plastics waste — said in an interview the Senate bill would create the most comprehensive statewide law in the country for addressing single-use plastics.
“We’re drowning in single-use plastics and this legislation would be a meaningful step forward,” he said.
The plastics bill also creates a working group to figure out ways for the state to reduce use of single-use products.
Sen. Bobby Starr, D-Essex-Orleans, asked why the bans were going into effect before the working group completes its study. Bray said the group’s focus would be more on how to reduce plastics in packaging, which he said accounts for 50 percent of plastics use and seems omnipresent.
“That means there is somebody getting ready to sell you something, and they’re putting it in plastic,” he said.
Gov. Phil Scott said at a press conference Thursday that he was not opposed to a single-use plastic bag ban, but questioned the charge on paper bags.
“I’m concerned about and I’m not quite sure I understand the 10-cent increase in other bags,” he said. “So we’ll see how that works its way through.”
