Noon Rally Outside Portland City Hall
Give Portland Mayor Sam Adams credit for good timing.
Today’s city council meeting opened with about 15-minutes of testimony on why Portland should ban single use plastic bags. The chambers were filled with ban supporters. When it was over, Adams announced that a draft ordinance for a plastic bag ban would be ready by the end of the week. The crowd erupted into cheers.
After coming oh-so close to a statewide ban on plastic bags earlier this year, ban supporters have taken the time to regroup and re-energize the movement.
Stiv Wilson of the 5 Gyres Project kicked off this morning’s testimony with some graphic descriptions of the junk he found floating in the Ocean during a four week tour of the North Pacific Gyre in January.
He asked council members to imagine being 2000 miles of land and finding PVC pipe, shotgun shells and toothbrushes. “Everything you see in the grocery store is out there,” he said. “You can pick it up with your hand.”
He and the others who testified say Portland has a critical role to play in the statewide movement for a ban.
Nastassja Pace is with Oregon Surfrider, one of the group’s that keep the bag ban afloat. “Portlanders are ready to ban the bag,” she told the council. “We need your help. Leadership in Portland will help lead the way for statewide legislation.”
They acknowledged that banning bags won’t solve all the problem, but that it would be an important first step.
Status of a Statewide Ban
Oregon lawmakers were extremely close to banning plastic bags during this year’s special session. But one of the sponsors, State Senator Mark Hass told me in February that last minute opposition from grocers forced him to withdraw the legislation. Hass said that grocers were legitimately worried about the higher costs of replacing plastic bags with paper ones.
According to the Oregonian, Hass and co-sponsor Jason Atkinson are preparing a new version of the ban the bag bill for next year. It includes a nickel charge for paper bags – and the stores get to keep the money.
That may be exactly that retailers and grocers need to get behind the ban. And if that happens, it probably is unstoppable.
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Boy Scouts do this sort of thing for merit badges and such. Where’s any real contribution? Very sad for Portland.
S. Kupillas