Plastic bags are a bane, but an Ann Arbor-only ban isn't the answer

Paper or plastic? The best answer is neither, which is one reason we don’t support a ban on plastic grocery bags in the city of Ann Arbor, well-intentioned though that proposal may be.

Last month, the Ann Arbor City Council tabled a resolution that would prohibit large retailers in the city from giving plastic carry-out bags to their customers. Council member Stephen Rapundalo, D-2nd Ward, asked for more time to review the idea, which will be brought back by the end of the year.

Efforts to ban plastic bags are gaining momentum not just across the United States, but globally. Countries such as China and Ireland have banned or taxed their use, as have cities like San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

Still, the case against plastic grocery bags isn’t as compelling as the global movement would suggest. There’s evidence that using paper bags is as harmful to natural resources, if not more so. And even though billions of plastic bags are dispensed each year, they account for but a fraction of the waste in landfills or litter on the streets.

Not that we’re a fan of plastic bags. Be they an ecological nightmare or a lesser scourge, they are environmentally damaging. We welcome efforts to greatly reduce their use and greatly increase the recycling of them, even though we wouldn’t advocate an outright ban of them that applied to the city only.

Many environmentalists would agree that the best solution is not to encourage the use of paper bags over plastic bags, but rather for shoppers to eschew both and choose reusable bags instead. A reusable bag, used four or more times before it’s disposed of, is better for the environment.

To ban plastic bags in the city of Ann Arbor would have symbolic value, and would cause some people to switch to reusable bags - though others would just use paper bags, or would do their shopping at nearby stores outside the city.

But reducing the use of plastic bags is something that most people could do fairly easily, if they chose to. We see this more as a matter of personal responsibility, rather than something to be addressed on an isolated basis in Ann Arbor through public policy that puts the burden on retailers - many of whom already are addressing the issue voluntarily.

There are ample examples of grocery stores making it easier for customers to reduce the use of plastic bags locally. Meijer offers a plastic bag recycling program in its stores, and sells inexpensive reusable bags. Busch’s also sells reusable bags for 99 cents, and offers customers a 5-cent credit each time they re-use an Eco-Bag or bring a paper bag back to the store for re-use.

We understand reusable bags aren’t as practical for larger purchases of groceries. Other options would be for more communities to offer plastic bag recycling, or incentives for greater use of biodegradable or compostable plastic bags.

Sure, Ann Arbor could follow San Francisco’s lead and ban plastic bags. Then again, a study found that chewing gum resulted in more litter on the streets of San Francisco than plastic bags did. So what’s next - a ban on gum?

We as individuals should take it upon ourselves to reduce our use of plastic bags and free our elected officials to focus on the more pressing local concerns they have before them.

(This editorial was published in today's newspaper and reflects the opinion of the AnnArbor.com editorial board.)