Pittsburgh Plastic Bag Ban Moves Forward
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - The push to ban plastic bags in the city of Pittsburgh is one step closer.
On Wednesday, the bill was unanimously voted out of committee and will head for a final vote by city council next Tuesday.
"On average, plastic bags are used for 12 minutes and then they're gone forever. There's so many reasons (to ban plastic bags) for our quality of life and our neighborhoods, for our public health and for future generations to be able to do something to clean up our neighborhoods and to just make Pittsburgh a better place to live," said city council member Erika Strassburger, who represents the city's 8th district.
She introduced the bill last year. She said the push behind it is to eliminate pollution and unnecessary littering in the streets.
"They clog up our recycling infrastructure. They clog up our catch basins where water goes and there's just a lot of problems with it," Strassburger said.
If banned, Strassburger said restaurants would have to switch to paper bags for carry-out orders. Shoppers at grocery stores would be encouraged to use reusable bags or pay a small fee for a paper bag at the store.
"Paper bags will be a fee. We hope that people will be incentivized to bring their own bags, any kind of bag, any kind of container whether it's a box, a plastic bag, a tote bag, you can bring that in and start to use that," Strassburger said.
Strassburger said thanks to the amended legislation, paper bags would cost 10 cents a bag rather than 15 cents. Plastic bags currently cost about two cents per bag.
"The great thing about this bill is if you give out paper and you're charging 10 cents, that extra additional two cents goes back to the retailer. So, the city is not collecting that. You get to keep that as a restaurant and use it for whatever purposes you need," Strassburger said.
Some restaurant owners tell KDKA they're not pleased about the ban.
"It's just bad timing for small businesses. The supply chain is very limited. Prices are way up. Inflation is up. There's no real replacements for it. So at the end, you're going to scramble anyhow," said Jeff Cohen, the owner of Smallman Street Deli. "If council was smart, they would just table it. And we look at it sometime in 2023 when things maybe get back to normal."
City council will vote on the bill on Tuesday. If it passes, Strassburger said the ban will not go into effect for a year.
"That gives us a full year to educate everyone -- residents, business owners -- and maybe raise some money to be able to help them out in certain ways to purchase reusable bags to give out and make sure everyone really has the tools they need to be successful here," Strassburger said.
