Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Rubber News
Subscribe
  • Sign Up Free
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • Digital Edition
    • End Markets
    • Special Reports
    • Newsletters
    • Videos
    • Podcasts
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • K Show
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • Notable Leaders in Sustainability
    • Processor of the Year
    • Best Places to Work
    • Women Breaking the Mold
    • Rising Stars
    • Diversity
    • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • One Good Resin
    • Pellets and Politics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • From Pillar to Post
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Fake Plastic Trees
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
  • Events
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Editorial Livestreams
    • Ask the Expert
    • Plastics News Events Library
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Plastics Caps + Closures: A Global Online Event
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
    • Bioplastics Live
    • Numbers that Matter Live
    • PFAS Live
    • Plastics in Politics Live
    • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Sustainable Plastics Live
    • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
  • Rankings & Data
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Directory
  • Resin Prices
    • Resin Prices Overview
    • Commodity Thermoplastics
    • High Temperature Thermoplastics
    • Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Thermosets
    • Europe - Virgin
    • Europe - Recycled
    • Europe - Feedstock
  • Custom
    • Sponsored Content
    • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
    • Conair Sponsored Content
    • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • White Papers
    • Classifieds
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
January 12, 2018 01:00 AM

Texas Supreme Court looks at legality of plastic bag bans

Steve Toloken
Assistant Managing Editor
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print
    Texas Judicial Branch

    The plastic bag had its day in court Jan. 11, with the Texas Supreme Court hearing a widely watched case challenging the city of Laredo's ban on thin shopping bags.

    The justices and lawyers spent 45 minutes wrangling over the pros and cons of plastic bag bans and whether they're allowed under Texas law. The case has implications for at least 10 other Texas cities with their own bag ordinances.

    A group of Laredo businesses and the Texas attorney general argued that Laredo's ban was illegal. They said a 1993 state law prohibits cities from restricting packages and containers as part of solid waste management.

    Laredo, however, said its ban is needed because it suffers significant harm from plastic bags, or as one court petitioner called them, "urban tumbleweeds."

    A lawyer for the city said it spends more than $340,000 a year cleaning up from the estimated 120 million plastic bags used annually by its residents.

    "They end up in the sewer systems, stopping up the drainage system, and they end up exacerbating flooding and putting lives at risk because of that flooding," said Dale Wainwright, a lawyer with Greenberg Traurig LLP in Austin. "Not to mention the litter that it causes."

    He said the city, which has about 250,000 people, spends tax funds "taking the bags away from the rivers and streams that the bags were poisoning and taking the bags off of trees and fences throughout the city."

    "The ordinance is a reasonable response to a huge problem in the city," said Wainwright, who is also a former justice of the Texas Supreme Court.

    Strictly speaking, the case is not directly about the pros and cons of plastic bags. It turns on legal arguments about the authority of cities.

    The Laredo Merchants Association, which filed the original case, contends Texas's 1993 Solid Waste Disposal Act prevents cities from banning containers or packages.

    "With unmistakable clarity, the state legislature has declared that cities cannot pass an ordinance to ban the sale or use of a container or package for solid waste management purposes," said Richard Phillips, a lawyer with Thompson & Knight LLP. "That's exactly what they've done here."

    The office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton agreed, with a lawyer telling the justices that Laredo was engaging in sophistry and "magic words" to avoid the plain meaning of the 1993 law.

    Adopting Laredo's position would lead to a "slippery slope" toward more packaging bans and "obvious harms to consumer convenience and freedom," Paxton's office wrote.

    But Laredo argued it's not at all clear that lawmakers 25 years ago meant to include plastic bags.

    Wainwright said the 1993 state law does not specify plastic bags, and he said Texas legislators have in the past several years taken up but not passed bills that would have specifically overruled local plastic bag bans.

    The two sides split in lower courts, with the city winning at the district court and the merchants prevailing in the appeals court.

    The case has attracted major interest, with more than 15 environmental groups, businesses and other cities submitting friend of the court comments on both sides.

    The arguments in Texas mirror a nationwide debate. The plastics bag industry did not file its own court brief, but one of its main political strategies has been to lobby other state legislatures to pass laws like the one on trial in Texas, preventing cities from banning bags.

    Allies of the plastics industry, like retailers and the Texas Public Policy Foundation, said they oppose a patchwork of local bag laws.

    "Inconsistent local ordinances harm the sales of affected retailers, force the layoff of employees, deprive retailers of their existing inventory of bags and impose an expensive and complex requirement on multisite retailers," the Texas Retail Federation said.

    But other businesses, like the state's cotton growers and some ranchers, favor Laredo's ban.

    "Cotton harvests are increasingly contaminated by plastic carryout bag litter, and TCGA's membership would suffer financially from lower cotton prices due to increasingly contaminated bales if municipalities are not able to regulate plastic bags locally," the Texas Cotton Ginners' Association said.

    As well, a rancher and district attorney in three rural counties filed a brief supporting Laredo.

    Jose Aliseda, district attorney for Bee, Live Oak and McMullen counties and a former Republican member of the Texas House, argued Texas law does give cities the power to regulate bags. He called them a "significant problem for many Texas cities."

    "As a cattle rancher, he is also concerned with the negative impact plastic bag litter has on his livestock and livestock of other Texans," Aliseda's filing said.

    The Texas Municipal League said it saw the merchants' arguments as giving businesses unfettered power.

    "The truth behind [the merchants association] arguments is that state and national business lobby groups simply want to cut out all sound and reasonable city regulations and operate however they wish," the league said.

    RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
    Nova declares force majeure for PE resin at second Ontario site
    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    Most Popular
    1
    Braskem stops production on a PP line at Pennsylvania plant
    2
    Perspective: Making the case that ‘Recycling Is Real'
    3
    Superior Die Set seeks sale of Wisconsin plant, may be forced to close
    4
    An 8,000-ton dream for Milacron, 20/20 Custom Molded Plastics
    5
    Lego ditches plans to make bricks from recycled PET
    SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE NEWSLETTERS
    EMAIL ADDRESS

    Please enter a valid email address.

    Please enter your email address.

    Please verify captcha.

    Please select at least one newsletter to subscribe.

    Find more newsletters at plasticsnews.com/newsletters.

    You can unsubscribe at any time through links in these emails. For more information, see our Privacy Policy.

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber News
    • Tire Business
    • Urethanes Technology
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2023. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • K Show
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
      • Digital Edition
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • Special Reports
        • Notable Leaders in Sustainability
        • Processor of the Year
        • Best Places to Work
        • Women Breaking the Mold
        • Rising Stars
        • Diversity
        • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
      • Newsletters
      • Videos
      • Podcasts
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • One Good Resin
      • Pellets and Politics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • From Pillar to Post
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
      • Fake Plastic Trees
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Injection Molding & Design Expo
        • Plastics Caps + Closures: A Global Online Event
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
      • Industry Events
      • Injection Molding & Design Expo
      • Livestreams/Webinars
      • Editorial Livestreams
        • Bioplastics Live
        • Numbers that Matter Live
        • PFAS Live
        • Plastics in Politics Live
        • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
        • Polymer Points Live
        • Sustainable Plastics Live
      • Ask the Expert
      • Plastics News Events Library
        • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
        • Plastics in Healthcare Library
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
    • Rankings & Data
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Directory
    • Resin Prices
      • Resin Prices Overview
      • Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temperature Thermoplastics
      • Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Recycled Plastics
      • Thermosets
      • Europe - Virgin
      • Europe - Recycled
      • Europe - Feedstock
    • Custom
      • Sponsored Content
      • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
      • Conair Sponsored Content
      • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • White Papers
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified