Philly’s ban has prevented 200 million plastic bags from being used

A Philadelphia ban has prevented 200 million plastic bags from being used — the equivalent to filling City Hall with bags every eight months, according to a report released Thursday.

The report was commissioned by the city to gauge the impact of a ban passed by Council, which went into effect July 1, 2021. The ban prohibited retailers from giving out single-use plastic bags and paper bags not made of at least 40% recycled material or face penalties of $150 or more per violation. The study was conducted between June 2021 (to establish a baseline) and August 2022 to get a one-year snapshot of the ban.

The study was conducted by lead researcher Daniel Banko Ferran of the University of Pittsburgh and Syon Bhanot of Swarthmore College.

» READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Philadelphia’s plastic bag ban

They found that the ban significantly reduced plastic bag use while increasing the use of paper and reusable bags. Overall, the estimated number of disposable bags dropped considerably, even taking into account a rise in the use of paper bags.

“I would say that, overall, the ban had a huge, very positive impact,” said David Masur, executive director of the nonprofit environmental advocacy group PennEnvironment. “Municipalities all over Pennsylvania are now following Philadelphia and implementing their own plastic bag bans.”

At least 16 municipalities in the state, including Pittsburgh, have approved some type of ban, with most of them concentrated in the east, according to PennEnvironment. For example, Haverford, Media, and Radnor have approved some type of ban. Bans are proposed in other municipalities.

Cheltenham Township adopted an ordinance Wednesday that regulates use of single-use plastic bags, removing an exemption in original language that would have allowed takeout restaurants to continue using plastic bags.

The Cheltenham ban goes into effect in 90 days and prohibits retailers from giving out single-use plastic bags at the store or through a delivery. Customers are to be charged 10 cents for a recycled paper bag. The municipality worked with PennEnvironment and model legislation to draft the ordinance.

“This success of the Plastic Bag Ban Ordinance shows how the city, together with local business and consumers, can stop waste before it starts,” said Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney.

Philadelphia Councilmember Mark Squilla said he is “pleased to see the positive impact the ban has had on the environment and the cleanliness of our city in just one year. The residents of our city have become accustomed to reusable bags.”

Before the ban, city officials said, one billion plastic bags were used each year, many of which litter streets, waterways, and commercial corridors. The bags are not recyclable at street pickup, though people try stuffing them into blue bins anyway. The lightweight plastic gets tangled in equipment at recycling facilities.

Philadelphia’s ban was different from many other bag bans in that it prohibits single-use bags made through what’s known as a blown-film extrusion process, or the primary way most had been created. This prevented the use of thicker bags that retailers could claim were reusable. Many bans across the country have been based on the thickness of bags, allowing retailers to simply substitute thicker bags.

To derive their estimates, the researchers compared bag use in 10 grocery stores in Philadelphia and seven in its surrounding suburbs where there was no ban. That allowed the researchers to account for how retailers were using bags without any restrictions.

“We collected a unique individual level data set on approximately 9,000 shoppers using over 21,000 bags,” the researchers wrote. They extrapolated from that an estimate of how many bags were saved.

Before the ban, the study says, roughly 64% of consumers in Philadelphia used at least one plastic bag when shopping at one of the sample stores, 17.7% used at least one paper bag, 21.9% used at least one reusable bag and 4.9% of consumers used no bag.

That translated to consumers using an estimated two plastic bags for each shopping trip before the ban.

The ban resulted in a 53 percentage point reduction in the likelihood of a consumer using a plastic bag. Meanwhile, the likelihood that consumers used a paper bag, reusable bag, or no bag increased by a smaller amount. .

“Taken together, the ban led to a large decrease in the proportion of consumers using a plastic bag, with consumers mainly switching to either paper bags or reusable bags,” the authors wrote.

It took three months for the use of single-use plastic bags to decrease, but that the likelihood of consumers using plastic bags declined to near zero for the remainder of the study. The likelihood consumers used reusable bags gradually increased. Paper bag use peaked six months after the ban began, but dropped after that.

Masur, of PennEnvironment, said he would like to see Philadelphia now institute a charge on the use of paper bags.

“We want to move away from a general throwaway society,” Masur said. “That means reducing the reliance on paper bags. When you don’t have a disincentive like a 10 or 15 cent fee on paper bags, many consumers just move over to using them.”