Ban to distribute single use plastic bags in Logan postponed

FILE - Plastic grocery bags line the checkout counters at Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market in Bentonville, Ark., Thursday June 5, 2014. (AP Photo/Sarah Bentham)

LOGAN – Logan Municipal Council members voted Tuesday night to delay the ban on single use plastic bags in Logan.

The vote came after Solid Waste Advisory Board (SWAB) member and Richmond Mayor Jeff Young asked the council to postpone the April 22 start date to July 31 in an effort to give the board more time to finalize and implement a countywide plan to address plastic waste.

In December 2019, council members voted to pass a resolution in support of the countywide plastic waste program. However, in the event the program failed to be implemented, they also passed a “fall back safety” ordinance to ban the distribution of single use plastic bags in Logan and ensure their commitment to reduce plastic waste.

The Solid Waste Advisory Board has been working with Logan City Environmental Department and the Bear River Health Department to implement a “Plastic Management Program” for Cache County.

According to Young, businesses in Logan and other cities in the county approached the board with confusion after the ordinance was passed. He said there were concerns that since the ban was only in Logan, those with multiple businesses in different cities would have different rules. Many didn’t like the idea of the “strict cut off” in April and preferred the SWAB plan because it allowed them options.

“The plan we laid out for the county talked about ways that businesses could look and assess their own scenarios,” said Young. “It allows an option on the table that better works with businesses because it gives more depth in the avenue they can take rather than a single option.”

The plan, which is still being tweaked, suggests businesses throughout the county eliminate free single use plastic bags, or charge the customer a $0.10 fee per bag. Businesses could be charged a handling fee to dispose of plastics at the county waste facility.

Young said business owners he’s talked with are on board with the idea of helping the environment, but prefer “to collectively work together” on a countywide plan so that “everyone is on the same page.”

Council member and business owner Mark Anderson agreed.

“I think it’s good for people to have options and choices instead of being told this is what you’re going to do,” he said.

Council member Tom Jensen voted against the ordinance last year and supported the amendment to delay the ban.

“I’d rather have it be a cooperative thing than a compulsory thing where we have potential bad feelings and lack of cooperation and we lose the whole county, rather than what we are trying to do,” he said.

 

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7 Comments

  • Lee Allen February 5, 2020 at 2:59 pm Reply

    This is fruitless and was done for political reasons only in my opinion.

    If the intent is to reduce ‘plastic waste’ why are you going after the item that has to have one of the smallest mass and volume that is going into dumb? The focus should have been the plastic ‘whale’ in mass and volume and not the ‘plastic’ minnow.

    The hypocrisy of Logan City/Cache County recent elimination of every plastic recyclable container but # 2, as I recall, is a mockery. The saying ‘actions speak louder than words’ comes to mind and seem to fit very well here. Yet they will gladly stand on their soap box of reducing plastic waste by going after one of the most insignificant items thus making their whole argument for reduce plastic waste erroneous and dishonest… because guess where those eliminated recyclables are going, straight to the dump. Compounding the very problem they claim they want to solve.

    • HVD February 5, 2020 at 7:54 pm Reply

      1. It’s not just plastic volume, it’s also pLastic disposal. Plastic bags are the most likely to be blown away and get caught on trees and fences.
      2. Logan’s third party recycling company no longer accepts #3+ plastic because the market price for plastics has crashed because China won’t take our recycling anymore. Logan city had no choice in the matter.

  • Lance Williams February 5, 2020 at 3:21 pm Reply

    Hey dim bulbs
    This is not I repeat not California. Why with all of the problems facing cache valley ( housing, traffic, road conditions, lack of parking…) Why are we even bothering with stupid plastic sacks anyway come on people just repeal the stupid measure period and work on some of these more important issues and stop trying to mimic California do really need cache valley to be like Los Angeles with tent cities and dirty needless all over and exotic diseases for crying out loud pull your heads out come down from Cliff side or lunatic park and see how the rest of cache valley lives

    • KA February 5, 2020 at 3:52 pm Reply

      Reading this incomprehensible mess makes me think we should definitely focus more on education.

  • HVD February 5, 2020 at 8:24 pm Reply

    3. You’ll be happy to know that Logan city’s plastic bag ban is really just backstop policy to get a county-wide, more comprehensive plastic management program passed that manages both the volume and the disposal of not just bags, but all plastics. If the county passes a program, Logan cancels its ban.
    4. Since we all pay for and use the county landfill, any reduction in trash actually helps save money and lengthen the life of the landfill over the long-term so a more comprehensive plan is preferred.
    5. Scientists are actually finding microplastics everywhere as poorly disposed plastics degrade into tiny particles – in snow at the tops of mountains, in dust blowing off the west desert, in the waters of the Great Salt Lake. We don’t know the full extent of their source or health impacts, but it would seem prudence couldn’t hurt.

  • Concrete Logan February 6, 2020 at 9:41 pm Reply

    Gonna be a long road to get off plastic since its everywhere. . .

  • UtahDad February 6, 2020 at 10:26 pm Reply

    We lived in Washington State where our city passed a ban similar to the one being proposed. It started with a fee per bag and evolved into a total ban. We stopped shopping locally because of the inconvenience. It was the tip of the iceberg in a slate of ill-conceived well intentioned (I try to give people the benefit off the doubt) anti-business legislation. Oh, and they continuously raised taxes to support/enforce the new laws. I love nature and so I generally reuse plastic bags many times for many purposes – why not enforce existing litter laws instead?

    We ultimately moved to Utah where we thought individual freedom and common sense were more prevalent and valued. Please stop disappointing us. Please don’t turn Utah into the crazy West Coast. If you like their politics and policies, just move there.

    By the way, we also lived in Denmark where they recycle and burn waste in an environmentally safe way (and use the resulting heat to create electricity). Council members, if you’re going to try to be “progressive” to impress your Twitter buddies or the USU millenials (who are just kids) why not look at how smart people solve these problems rather than facsimilating some radically stupid California municipality run by morons.

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