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Kauai joins ban list, but Alaska community rescinds its
bag tax
Thursday, 15 October 2009 03:45
WASHINGTON (Updated Oct. 9, 8:30 a.m. ET) -- Kauai County has become the second county in Hawaii to ban plastic
carryout bags at retail establishments. But the Fairbanks North Star Borough in Alaska — which includes the city of
Fairbanks and the unincorporated community of the North Pole — has rescinded a 5-cent tax on disposal plastic
carryout bags that it approved four weeks ago.
The Kauai ban, approved Oct. 7, applies to all retailers in the county and mandates that retailers only offer shoppers at checkout lines reusable bags, non-petroleum-based biodegradable plastic bags and 100 percent recyclable paper bags
that have a minimum of 40 percent recycled content and which contain no old-growth fiber.
Both the Kauai County ban and the Maui County ban, which was approved last year, are scheduled to go into effect Jan. 1, 2011, effectively banning plastic carryout bags on two of the Hawaii’s four largest islands. A proposed ban in Hawaii
County was vetoed a year ago.
The Maui County ban prohibits all plastic carryout bags, including those made from bio-based resins. Kauai retailers have the option to charge customers for the biodegradable and paper carryout bags, and the county plans to distribute
25,000 free reusable bags to residents this month.
Assembly members in the Fairbanks North Star Borough in Alaska voted 8-1 on Oct. 8 to rescind a planned 5-cent fee on plastic carryout bags, reversing a 5-3 vote taken just four weeks ago. The 5-cent tax in the Fairbanks North Star Borough
— which has an estimated population of 100,000 — would have applied, starting Jan. 1, to grocery stores, discount
chains and bookstores with $1 million or more of annual sales.
With that tax in Alaska rescinded, it means the only U.S. city that has approved a tax on plastic bags is Washington, which in June approved a 5-cent tax on all paper and plastic carryout bags at grocery stores, drug stores, and retail food
establishments that will go into effect in January.
There also is a 5-cent tax on plastic bags in Toronto. Seattle voters in August rejected a proposed 20-cent tax on plastic and paper carryout bags.
There are 11 plastic carryout bag bans in the U.S., six of which were enacted this year, including one in Edmonds, Wash., a town of 40,000 located on the Puget Sound northwest of Seattle. The Edmonds ban, approved July 28, will go into effect
Aug. 27, 2010.
In addition to Edmonds, two small Alaskan towns, three counties on the Outer Banks in North Carolina and the northern California towns of Palo Alto and San Jose also passed plastic bag bans this year.
The ban in Hooper Bay, Alaska, went into effect in August, the ban in the North Carolina counties of Hyde, Dare and Currituck went into effect Sept. 1 and the Palo Alto ban went into effect Sept. 18
The plastic bag ban in Bethel, Alaska, goes into effect Sept. 1, 2010. The ban in San Jose was approved Sept. 22 pending an environmental impact review by the city, and must be approved again after that environmental review before it can
go into Dec. 31, 2010.
The San Jose ban would only permit retailers to distribute at checkout paper bags with at least 40 percent recycled
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