Transcript: Ban on Single-Use Plastic Bags
You’re listening to Environmentally Speaking, a weekly podcast diving into legal matters surrounding the environment, public utilities, energy, zoning, and permitting laws in Rhode Island and the surrounding areas with your host, Marisa Desotel. Good morning, everybody. And welcome to this week’s episode of Environmentally Speaking.
Hi, everyone. I’m Marisa Desautel, an environmental attorney in Rhode Island. And I’m Clarice, who after today’s topic, is not as bad as recycling as you think.
Oh, that’s right. You were really bad at recycling. I was.
And now that I’ve read the article for today’s topic, I don’t feel so bad. What are we talking about? We are talking about the Plastic Waste Reduction Act in Providence. And for folks in the area and surrounding areas in Rhode Island, is this a Providence specific? Yes, this particular, we’re specifically going to be talking about the act in Providence, but it is not uncommon.
It’s in 39 municipalities across the state. And it’s talking about banning plastic bags. Do you use reusable bags? I do.
The reusable bag issue is tough because eventually the reusable bag falls apart. And even if you patch it and sew it, eventually you got to throw it away. So it’s tough.
But with the plastic bag issue, something has to be done because they’re all over the place. It’s not easy to implement. I know on Aquidneck Island, where I am, there was a plastic bag ban that passed pre-COVID.
And so we’re kind of used to it out here. It’s all paper bags and the reusable bags. How about where you are? No, in Massachusetts, where I am, you could still do plastic bags just fine.
Hasn’t trickled over. I’ve actually heard a lot of comments about people. It’s funny.
People who are close to Aquidneck Island will, not everybody, but I’ve heard from some folks that they’ll make the drive right over since I’m on the Tiverton line, they’ll make the drive over to our local grocery stores because they just don’t want to deal with the paper bags. Really? Why? I don’t know. I mean, don’t get me wrong.
I don’t want my frozen stuff in a paper bag because that’s not going to last a whole long. But you bring a reusable bag. Should be fine.
So to take that extra drive and put in that extra effort just to get your single-use plastic to me is weird. It’s too much. Yeah.
And it seems like in Providence, they’re having some trouble enforcing. I think that’s a kind and light way of saying it. Enforcement has been abysmal in Providence.
So the point of this episode is we’re going to be talking about, you know, the band being in place and what’s happened since. Like Marissa said, even in Providence, the band started in October, 2019. Unfortunately, it was very slow to kick off because of the pandemic.
There was concerns kind of back in the early days of the pandemic where people were wiping down their groceries. They weren’t sure what you could use, how COVID was being transferred. In that time of uncertainty, the state and specifically Providence relaxed those restrictions for health and safety, which makes sense.
Since then, not a whole lot has been done. The band has kind of been put back in effect, but there was a while from up to I think 2022 where if you had single-use bags as a business, you were allowed to use them out and just not buy new ones. So you didn’t throw out your stock.
You just kind of had to make that your last order. Since then, not a lot’s been done. I think in 2023, excuse me, the Department of Public Works has only issued 416 tickets.
So you get a ticket? Yeah. You’re a business and you’re using plastic bags? And the fines are no joke. Your first violation is $100, your second is $200, and your third shoots up to $500.
And this is through… I’m sorry, I’m curious. This is through the city of Providence? This is not a state program? Okay. No.
From my understanding, the act was written so municipalities have control over who is in charge of enforcement. So it looks like in this case, Providence’s Department of Public Works has taken over enforcement. But then later on, further down in the article, and of course we’ll put this in our show notes, DEM has also volunteered to assist and take that kind of enforcement responsibility on for folks, or for municipalities, I should say.
Well, that’s interesting. The Department of Environmental Management is understaffed. So I’m surprised to hear that.
It’s difficult for the wetlands biologists at DEM to even issue citations for wetlands enforcement. So I’m wondering how many enforcement officers they have at DEM for this program. I’m not sure.
I think the other thing that we’re seeing too is, it’s just the idea of, are these violations being called in? How is this getting reported? What’s actually being done to put some teeth behind these rules? And from my reading, not much. There was a lovely line where folks were encouraged to see something, say something. But I think on a realistic note, if I’m going to go into a grocery store or some sort of store in Providence, and they give me a single-use bag, I might be surprised because I don’t expect that.
I’m not calling them in. Imagine that. Like, thanks so much for my coffee and whatever pastry.
I’m going to report you. It’s just not something that’s happening. Oh my god.
That’s a hysterical thought. Yeah. I came here to buy shoes, and now I’m going to make sure you get fined.
That just feels so odd. And it’s not a reliable way of doing it. But like you said, everybody is understaffed.
And it’s not as big of a priority as I think it was billed out to be. Yeah. Another thing is… The ban was implemented in Providence in 2019.
Yeah. So we’re, you know, we’re five years into it now. I remember on Aquidneck Island, there was a huge public outreach effort to put people on notice that plastic bags were going to be banned.
And it was a while before it actually went into effect. I wonder if Providence is having difficulty with their education. And maybe folks just don’t know that they’re not supposed to be using plastic bags.
Yeah. Oh, yeah. I completely agree with that.
And I think building off of that education piece, folks aren’t… The recycling efforts and in education and where these single-use plastic bags go, how they should be disposed of, why they’re being phased out, that key element is missing. So a lot of these plastic bags are being put into regular recycling. I had that problem.
I mean, my recycling got rejected for it. I had no idea. It wasn’t until, you know, somebody said, the town called and said, hey, you can’t do that.
And I was like, oh, okay. I never knew. And Providence alone, over 15 tons of recycling was rejected in 2021 because of single-use plastic.
So all of that recycling then just goes to the landfill. It’s not being sorted out afterwards. It’s not being readdressed.
And I mean, it’s 15 tons. You’re not going to sift through 15 tons. It just all goes to waste.
So this education piece is huge. And I just don’t see anything happening with it. I wonder also if the responsibility is put on the consumer to bring in their own reusable bag.
That’s got to be an impediment to the program as well. How many times do you run out to a store and you forgot your reusable bag or you just don’t have? Why? And I wonder why the store wouldn’t just convert to paper bag. I think from what I can see, what’s interesting is the stores that are following this rule are converting to paper.
But they’re paper for purchase. Okay. So I think that’s another piece that people were flagging as unfair or great.
It was the idea of they’re calling it another poor tax is what the article says. Because you either have to go out and buy reusable bags and remember them and keep them in your car. Or if you’re out and about, keep one in your purse or whatever.
Or you’re now forced to buy the paper bag. So that’s been a problem. Wow.
Yeah. I mean, we all hear about Rhode Island Resource Recovery, the corporation that handles our trash and the landfill. We’ve all heard about the fact that it’s almost full.
And plastic is a huge component of the material that’s going there. That’s my understanding. Yeah.
If we’re banning plastic bags, then there’s got to be an alternative. And I think that that’s what this ordinance is struggling with, that there’s no good. Okay, we can’t use plastic.
What are we going to do instead? And I think people are more inclined to follow the ordinance if there was an easy alternative available. Yeah, absolutely. I think if it was something easier, if there were, I mean, even just like you were saying that missing education element.
I don’t know what the cost of manufacturing reusable bags are. But if there were education kind of like stations set up, maybe at your library, maybe at a resource center, maybe at a community center. And with that, they had a couple of those bags.
They could do advertising for the program. They could start somebody out with a bag or two and just kind of get them going. How many reusable bags are sitting in your closet right now? I’ve got like six of them that I’d be happy to donate to the cause.
In fact, please take my reusable bags. Absolutely. Oh, I’ve got so many and I keep them all in the trunk of my car.
It’s one bag. That’s the master bag stuffed with all the other ones. Yeah, a bag in a bag in a bag.
So I think if there was something combining the education piece plus the access, you know, a bag or two is not going to. I think that it might be enough, maybe not for a week of groceries, but it at least gets folks moving in that space. So it just kind of.
Yeah, I was going to say it just kind of feels like this was something that was rolled out in a shiny new package and then very quickly forgotten. Well, I love an update episode, but I never have good news. Yeah, maybe someone will listen to this and and run with it.
Maybe we should run with it. Someone should run with it. We got to do something.
We got to do like a bag collection and circulation system about that more. OK. Well, it’s a brainstorming morning.
I love it. If you guys have any thoughts on it, if you have any kind of reactions. What’s your experience been with this? Are you are you reporting your grocery stores? Are you reporting other stores you go into? Let me know what went into that phone call.
You can reach out to us. We are on the socials at Desautel Browning Law on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. If you want to send us an email with your experience of this, you can email Marisa at Marisa@DesautelBrowning.com.
Awesome. All right. Stay reusable, folks.
Thank you for listening to this episode of Environmentally Speaking. If you’re in need of an environmental attorney, we are here to help. Call us at 401-477-0023
