LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – If you can’t punch your way out of a paper bag, you might be in trouble because sometime soon, paper and reusable environment-friendly bags might be your only option at businesses in Michigan if Democratic legislators have their way. Back in 2016, state Republicans passed legislation to “ban the bans” on single-use plastics and plastic grocery bags. However, now that the Democrats are in charge of the legislature, they are wanting to repeal the ban on the bans.
House Bill 4359, sponsored by State Rep. Felicia Brabec (D-Pittsfield Twp.) and co-sponsored by 27 other House Democrats, was introduced in April and would repeal a previous bill, 2016 PA 389, which preempts local ordinances regulating the use, disposition, or sale of, prohibiting or restricting, or imposing any fee, charge, or tax on ‘auxiliary containers’ (generally defined as bags, cups, bottles, or other packaging designed for transporting, consuming, or protecting merchandise, food, or beverages from or at a food service or retail facility).
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The legislative analysis of HB 4359 says that repealing 2016 PA 389 would allow local units of government to enact their own local ordinances regarding plastic bags and single-use items in accordance with other state laws.
On Thursday, the House Committee on Natural Resources, Environment, Tourism and Outdoor Recreation heard testimony regarding HB 4359. Rep. Brabec said, “Simply put, this is an issue of local control…This bill allows local municipalities to make their own decisions about auxiliary containers, and that can include bags, cups, bottles, and other packaging used to transport food.”
The Democrats say that the bill is in response to helping combat the estimated 22 million pounds of plastic waste that end up in our Great Lakes every year according to a study from the Rochester Institute of Technology. But how much of that plastic waste is from Canada? The 22 million pounds the study cites says that the debris is from both the United States and Canada.
According to the Center for Biological Diversity, “Plastic bags start out as fossil fuels and end up as deadly waste in landfills and the ocean. Birds often mistake shredded plastic bags for food, filling their stomachs with toxic debris. For hungry sea turtles, it’s nearly impossible to distinguish between jellyfish and floating plastic shopping bags. Fish eat thousands of tons of plastic a year, transferring it up the food chain to bigger fish and marine mammals. Microplastics are also consumed by people through food and in the air. It’s estimated that globally, people consume the equivalent of a credit card of plastic every week, and it’s expected that there will be more plastic than fish in the sea by 2050.” They go on to say that Americans use five trillion plastic bags a year and that it takes 1,000 years for a plastic bag to degrade in a landfill.
The Michigan Restaurant & Lodging Association opposes the new legislation and told Bridge Michigan that restaurants have increasingly started relying on take-out in the post-COVID world and that complying with a patchwork of policies from different communities could pose an “administrative nightmare.”
State Rep. Dave Prestin (R-Cedar River) agrees and says, “A lot of these containers that are at risk are really relied upon by the general public for the safe storage and transport of ready-to-eat food.”
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Is this legislation “in the bag”? It’s too soon to tell.
