Austin’s Plastic Bag Ban Violates TX Law, will Harm Consumers, Jobs and the Environment

from Raquel Bubar:

The Austin bag ban that takes effect on March 1st. As you may have heard, Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell pushed through a short-sighted ordinance to ban grocery bags in the city. The ordinance is terrible public policy that is bad for the economy, bad for business and bad for Austin consumers. It also penalizes businesses who fail to comply with a class C misdemeanor and a $2,000 fine. That’s drastic for grocery bags!
If Austin’s politicians were serious about cleaning up litter and creating jobs, they would have considered other solutions, rather than banning a 100% recyclable product that amounts to only 0.5% of the litter stream, according to the U.S. EPA.

Here is a fact sheet that highlights the downsides of this ban, which might be interesting to share with your readers. Also, check out this infographic on why plastic bags make sense.


from KLBJ News Radio:

New 'bag ban' may go against state law


Newsroom

2/26/2013

An association representing store owners is suing the city of Austin over it's impending ban on single use plastic bags. Ronnie Volkening with the Texas Retailers Association says the ordinance appears to go against a state law that may pre-empt it. Volkening doesn't give many specifics about the statute, but says by his reading the new bag ban goes against part of the state's health and safety code.
Volkening says he is not trying to get an injunction to stop the ban before it starts. Instead his association's suit is seeking a 'declaratory judgement action' about the ordinance.
Volkening says he's telling his members to abide by the ordinance until the case is heard in court. The bag ban goes into effect Friday.