Prairie Village to consider a ban on plastic bags, 10 cent fee on paper bags

Prairie Village is considering placing a ban on plastic bags distributed by businesses and requiring 10 cent fee on all paper bags. The idea behind the proposal is to promote the use of reusable bags and reduce the amount of single-use bags used in Prairie Village, according to Prairie Village Councilman Tucker Poling.

City council member Jori Nelson and Poling, along with the Prairie Village Environmental Committee, are still developing the proposal and hope to present it to the Prairie Village City Council in April. If the council approves it, the ban would take effect in about six months to a year following its approval.

Several stores in the Prairie Village area, such as Goodcents and Euston’s Hardware, are supportive of this plastic bag ban, believing that this is a step in the right direction, but still want to ensure their customer’s satisfaction.

“Once [the ban is] around for a few months and customers start understanding and getting used to those standards, they start figuring out ways around it by, you know, having canvas bags, not using a bag at all or whatever else they need to do,” manager of Euston Hardware Matt Cavanaugh said. 

Nelson and Poling have been researching the best way to reduce the amount of plastic bags consumers use, by examining the effectiveness of a fee on paper and single-use plastic bags in other cities.

“What seemed to work best was some sort of combination of a ban and a fee because another approach some cities have taken is to charge a fee and basically charge a fee for single-use plastics,” Poling said. “Our research indicated that was not the most effective way, and there were also some legal barriers involved.”

Some largely populated cities, including New York City and Los Angeles, have banned plastic bags and imposed a five or 10 cent fee on all paper bags, according to the New York Times. 

“Where we’re at now is what I and Councilman Nelson are asking is to start a community discussion about this,” Poling said. “Where it goes is very uncertain, because we want to be open to that public input from the residents and business owners,”

According to Elaine Giessel, chair of the Kanza division of the Sierra Club, an environmental organization created 1892, the average life span of a plastic bag is 12 minutes — from the time groceries are placed into the plastic bag until the time they thrown away.

“Plastic bags can take up to 10,000 years to biodegrade, so when you have hundreds of thousands and even millions of plastic bags placed into the environment from Prairie Village alone, those are going to stay with us for at least ten thousand years,” Poling said.

Freshman Ella Rogers, who takes measures to be eco-friendly, is also supportive of the ban. Rogers believes plastic bags are not necessary and using canvas bags, let alone no bag, is better.

 “I mean when you look at these videos and you see these animals and plastic waste, I think it’s really a shame,” Rogers said. “Why do we even have to spend money making these plastic bags anymore?”

However, a new bill, Bill 2625, was introduced to the Kansas Government on Feb. 11 to prevent cities from banning plastic bags. According to Giessel, this bill was created by lobbyists from the plastic industry.  If this bill becomes a law, then Prairie Village City Council’s decision will be overridden. 

Several states, including Missouri and Florida, have passed laws similar to this one, overriding plastic bag bans. 

“[If bill 2625 became a law, it] will completely end the discussion, which I think would be unfortunate because local communities can often be very valuable for being little test tubes for trying new ideas and new policies to see what works and what doesn’t,” Poling said.