Will Philadelphia see new paper bag fees in 2024?

Banning plastic bags in Philadelphia has been a decade-long saga. Yet the issue is still floating along, like a grocery bag caught in the wind.

A month ago, Philadelphia City Council passed a bill that would require customers to pay 15 cents for every paper bag sold at checkout in Philly, on top of the already imposed citywide plastic bag ban. However, this paper bag fee bill sat on then-Mayor Kenney’s desk unsigned as he left office in December, effectively killing the bill in a pocket veto.

The original plastic bag ban was officially passed in December 2019, slowly rolled out in July 2021, and officially enforced beginning in April 2022. While many local stores already charge for paper and reusable bags, the reasoning is that when customers aren’t provided with free plastic bags, or face an additional charge for using such bags, they will instead opt to use reusable bags.

The ban has dramatically reduced the usage of plastic bags in grocery stores in the region, according to the city’s years-long study on the measure.

Before the ban went into effect, more than half of all shoppers used at least one plastic bag at the grocery store. A few months after the rollout, only 4% of shoppers were still using plastic bags. However, this has led to paper bag usage tripling at grocery stores since the ban started, with the majority of Philly shoppers still use paper bags more than reusable ones.

While paper bags are easier to recycle and are more biodegradable than plastic bags, they can still use more energy to produce, result in trees being cut down, and leave a larger carbon footprint than reusable bags, according to Stanford Magazine.

The goal of these efforts is to encourage people to use a set number of reusable bags over and over, instead of using a new bag every trip. A fee on paper bags is expected to cause an even greater reduction in single-use bags, according to research from the city.

Reducing the use of single-use plastics and paper creates better health and environmental outcomes for Philadelphians, said Darren Spielman, the executive director of statewide environmental nonprofit Pennsylvania Resources Council.

Plastic bags and other plastic products can pollute waterways and food sources with “microplastics” that endanger humans, animals, and the environment. Microplastics can be found in nearly 100% of Pennsylvania’s waterways, including the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers, according to a 2021 study.

Spielman also said plastic bags can be very difficult to recycle for various reasons, including bags not being clean enough to recycle, which leads to only a small percentage of plastic bags being recycled.

“The best thing any of us could do is not waste in the first place. It’s eventually better for our health and environment to use one bag a thousand times as opposed to a thousand bags one time,” said Spielman, whose organization supports the measures. “Even if that bag can be recycled, like a plastic bag, it’s better to use a reusable one than use plastic or paper and throw it away or recycle it.”

In Philly, the city estimates that 200 million plastic bags have been eliminated since the ban. “That’s enough to fill City Hall with plastic bags every week,” said Spielman.

When Washington implemented its 5-cent single-use bag fee about a decade ago, the city has since seen disposable bag usage drop by almost half, according to a 2018 study.

If Councilmember Mark Squilla, the author of both bag bills, plans to reintroduce the 15-cent paper bag fee in the 2024 City Council session, the bill will have to be assigned to a committee, voted out of committee, have a first and second reading, and then have an official vote to pass it.

The bill would then need to be signed by Mayor Cherelle L. Parker. If Parker chooses to veto a new bill on bags, at least 12 Council members would need to support the legislation to overturn a mayoral veto.

“Mayor Parker will await any legislative action by the new City Council on this issue, and will then decide her actions and comments based on any legislation that reaches her desk,” said Parker’s spokesperson, Joe Grace. The mayor made a “green and clean” Philadelphia a major policy point of her 100-Day Executive Action Plan and has stated she wants Philadelphia to be “the safest, cleanest, and greenest” big city in America.

The earliest a new paper bag fee bill could be introduced is the next City Council meeting, on Jan. 25. With the legislative process usually taking weeks, according to the Committee of Seventy, the earliest a new bill could be passed is in February or March. Squilla could not be reached for comment.

At least two suburban townships outside of Philadelphia, Upper and Lower Merion, have recently passed bag bans.