1. WSRA Fall Policy Forum December 5, 2018 Representative Strom Peterson
Reusable Bag Bill
WSRA Fall Policy Forum
December 5, 2018
Representative Strom Peterson

2. To address single-use plastics:
Reusable Bag Bill

4. Timothy Quinn (May 18, 2010: An Environmental Overview of the Puget Sound Ecosystem

5. “…a surprising amount of human debris: including more than 20 plastic bags, small towels, surgical gloves, sweat pants, plastic pieces, duct tape, and….”
Timothy Quinn (May 18, 2010: An Environmental Overview of the Puget Sound Ecosystem

6. 24 WA Reusable Bag Ordinances
Edmonds (2009)
Seattle (2011)
Bellingham (2011)
Mukilteo (2011)
Bainbridge Island (2012)
Port Townsend (2012)
Issaquah (2013)
Shoreline (2013)
Thurston Co-unincp (2013)
Tumwater (2013)
Olympia (2013)
Lacey (2014)
Lake Forest Park (2018)
Mercer Island (2014)
Kirkland (2015)
Ellensburg (2016)
San Juan Co-unincp (2016)
Tacoma (2016)
Friday Harbor (2017)
Quil Ceda Village (2017)
Port Angeles (2018)
La Conner (2018)
Kenmore (2018)
North Bend (2018) LAST NIGHT!
Everett (?) VOTING TONIGHT

7. Features

8. No thin plastic carry-home bags

9. Goal: Bring your own bag

10. Continue to allow paper bags with a 10 cents pass-through charge

11. Exempts bags that address:
Newspaper
Privacy
Produce
Dampness/
contamination
Dry cleaning

12. EBT/WIC/TANF exempt

13. Education/Outreach

14. Green and Brown-tinted plastic bags banned
Compostable bags allowed
Must be correctly labeled
Must be tinted green or brown

15. Enforcement: primarily complaint-based
Noncompliance is considered a civil class 1 civil infraction under chapter 7.80 RCW

16. Benefits

17. Community
© Copyright Graham Horn - Creative Commons License.

18. Commercial compost

19. Bale contamination
Local haulers and recycling companies would continue current operations and would receive financial support to handle the plastic items.
New local jobs in Washington would be created because the program would be incentivized to upgrade equipment and build new facilities here to process and re-manufacture plastics, rather than sending contaminated bales to other countries.

20. MRF operations Image: video B roll

21. Wildlife

22. Stormdrain system

23. Thank you