Seattle voters reject 20-cent bag tax

 SEATTLE (Updated Aug. 21, 9:45 a.m. ET) -- The attempt to place a 20-cent fee on all plastic and paper carryout bags in Seattle has been defeated. With more than 79 percent of the expected votes counted, the measure was failing 55 percent to 45 percent at the end of the day Aug. 20.

Seattle City Council had passed the fee on carryout bags July 28, 2008, but the Coalition to Stop the Seattle Bag Tax, funded almost entirely by the American Chemistry Council and its Progressive Bag Affiliates unit, gathered enough signatures last summer to force a mail-in voter referendum on the tax.

Arlington, Va.-based ACC had spent nearly $1.4 million in the last 12 months to defeat the tax, while bag tax proponents had only raised $64,000 to fund their efforts.

“It appears that the referendum was soundly defeated by Seattle residents,” said Steve Russell, vice president of plastics for ACC. “Residents clearly expressed that a tax was not the way to go. The message it sends to us is that consumers value plastic bags and have rejected the idea of paying a fee for something they value and already use responsibly.”

“The thing that is notable for us is that thousands of citizens in Seattle offered their names to get this referendum on the ballot to tell the government that they already knew how to handle plastic bags responsibility,” said Russell. “It was the voice of the citizens who spoke up and voted against the fee. It is welcome news to us that people will make responsible choices when you give them the facts, when you stick to the facts, and when you have a good dialogue.”

Russell said that “there wasn’t a justification for imposing a fee, particularly of this size, as Seattle residents are incredibly well-intentioned and environmentally responsible.” He also said it was “unfortunate” that a referendum was needed, “given the fact that the public didn’t support it.”

"We hope that elected officials nationwide get the message," said Stephen Joseph, attorney for the Save the Bag Coalition, which has filed lawsuits to overturn plastic bag bans in California. "Voters don’t want carryout bag bans or fees. Period. We hope [the Seattle vote] will have an impact" as voters in Seattle have a reputation for supporting environmental and liberal causes. "If they can't do it there, they can't do it anywhere."

A survey conducted by public opinion research firm Elway Research Inc. in Seattle for Seattle Public Utilities nine months prior to council’s near unanimous decision to enact the now-dead tax showed that 56 percent of residents opposed a tax on plastic and paper carryout bags.

That survey also found that 89 percent of residents recommended that supermarkets and stores in Seattle voluntarily reduce the number of plastic and paper carryout bags given out annually, estimated to be 360 million.

An official with King County Elections said most of the votes should be counted by early next week at the latest.  At the end of the day Aug. 20, 105,084 votes had been counted and certified. That represents more than 79 percent of the 132,900 votes that officials expected to be cast, as it was anticipated that 35 percent of registered voters would send in ballots.

The current "no" votes are 57,913, compared with 47,171 "yes" votes. That means that more than 69 percent of the remaining ballots election officials expect to receive would have to vote for the tax for it to be approved.

Had voters approved the tax, Seattle would have been the largest U.S. city to tax plastic bags. The only U.S. city that has approved a tax on plastic bags is Washington, D.C., which in June approved a 5-cent tax on all paper and plastic carryout bags at grocery stores, drug stores, and retail food establishments that will go into effect in January. There is also a 5-cent tax on plastic bags in Toronto.

ACC did not say why it did not pursue a referendum in Washington, D.C.

But Shari Jackson, director of the Progressive Bag Affiliates group in the plastics department of ACC, pointed out that the industry “knew ahead of time that the majority of voters in Seattle opposed a fee. In the District, we weren’t privy to that kind of information.”

Earlier this summer, efforts to enact a 25-cent fee on plastic carryout bags in California failed.

There are 10 plastic carryout bag bans in the U.S., five of which were enacted this year, including one in Edmonds, Wash., a town of 40,000 located on the Puget Sound northwest of Seattle. The Edmonds ban, approved July 28, will go into effect Aug. 27, 2010.

But even though five bans were enacted in 2009, Russell said that in light of the large number of proposals put forward, “it still is notable how few have turned into legislation to ban plastic bags.”

According to numbers supplied by ACC, there were roughly 40 proposals at the state level to ban or tax plastic bags in 2009, and 56 in 2008. In addition, there were more than 40 proposals at the community level to tax or ban plastic bags in 2008 and 2009.

“Every community is unique, but the Seattle vote might influence other communities,” said Russell. “We are hopeful that other communities may say that if Seattle residents didn’t think a fee was the right way to go, maybe there was a good reason and we should look at that more closely.”

“Most legislators are well-meaning and want to do something for the environment, and the vast majority conclude that promoting recycling is the best way to achieve that,” Russell said.

In the last two years, four states — California, New York, Rhode Island and Delaware, five cities — Tucson, Chicago, New York, San Juan Capistrano, Calif., and Red Bank, N.J., and five counties in New York — Albany, Nassau, Rockland, Suffolk and Westchester — have enacted mandatory plastic bag recycling.

During that same time frame, Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Tempe, Ariz., Solano Beach, Calif., and Lake County, Illinois have put into place voluntary plastic bag recycling programs.

“There is a growing list of jurisdictions with positive bag recycling legislation in place,” said Russell. “Give the opportunity for good constructive dialogue, most communities will continue to choose partnerships and positive approaches that will provide real solutions.”

But, at the same time, the number of bans is increasing, albeit in small communities.

In addition to Edmonds, two small Alaskan towns, three counties on the Outer Banks in North Carolina and Palo Alto, Calif., also passed plastic bag bans this year.

The ban in the North Carolina counties of Hyde, Dare and Currituck goes into effect Sept. 1 and applies to all single-use plastic disposal carryout bags at retail stores have 5,000 square feet or more, as well as retailers operating in those counties that have five or more stores in the state. Reusable plastic bags with handles that are 2.25 mils or greater in thickness can still be used. The law does not apply to plastic bags that are used to wrap meat, fish, poultry or produce.

The Palo Alto ban — approved March 30, but challenged in court — will go into effect as scheduled Sept. 18, because the city and the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition, which had sued to stop the ban, settled the lawsuit out-of-court.

The plastic bag ban in Bethel, Alaska, approved July 14, will go into effect in Sept. 1, 2010 in the town of 5,700 and applies to all retail establishment and food vendors. Bethel also banned the use of polystyrene cups, bowls, plates, trays and containers. The Alaskan town of Hooper Bay also approved a ban on plastic bags that went into effect this month.

Westport, Conn., Maui County in Hawaii and the California cities of San Francisco, Fairfax and Malibu also have bans on plastic carryout bags. A ban on plastic bags in Manhattan Beach, Calif., that covered 217 stores and restaurants was overturned in court, but the city plans to conduct an environmental impact report, as required under the California Environmental Quality Act, in an effort to get an okay to implement the ban.

Seattle had projected that its plastic and paper bag tax would have generated $3.5 million annually to be used for litter collection and recycling initiatives. Stores with less than $1 million annual revenue would have been able to keep the entire 20 cent fee collected per bag, while larger stores will get to keep 5 cents of the fee, with the rest going to the city.

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