New Bag Ordinance in Hood River – Bring reusable bags to the store starting March 1st.

By Miko Ruhlen. Jan. 13, 2017. On January 9, 2017 Hood River City Council voted unanimously to adopt Ordinance 2030 to impose restrictions on the distribution of single-use plastic bags and certain paper bags within the City’s retail establishments.

“Too many single-use plastic bags are released or find their way into the environment,” the ordinance states, “…plastics, including plastic film bags, is a significant form of environmental pollution that is demonstrably harmful to wildlife.” The Council listed other adverse impacts of plastic bags: damage to sorting and processing machinery in resource recovery, and consuming raw material and energy in the manufacturing and waste disposal of bags. The Council also states in the document that it seeks to “encourage the use of reusable bags for day-to-day shopping.”

Starting March 1, 2017  for large Hood River retailers (50 or more full-time employees) the ordinance states that “retail establishments shall not provide or make available single-use plastic carryout bags or non-recyclable paper bags.” Smaller retailers (less than 50 employees) will have to comply with the same rules as larger ones beginning July 1, 2017. This ordinance does not affect businesses that primarily prepare food and beverage, or retail stores outside of Hood River City limits.

Although commonly known as a ‘plastic bag ban,’ Ordinance 2030 also restricts larger paper bags. Retailers will be required to charge a minimum of 5 cents per bag for the typical handled paper bags used at check out at most grocery stores. These bags are referred to in the ordinance as ‘barrel-sized’ paper bags (approximately 12 inches wide x 7 inches deep x 13-18 inches tall or a capacity of 1,100 to 1,600 cubic inches). These barrel-sized paper bags will also need to be 100 percent recyclable and contain a minimum of 40 percent post-consumer waste.

Although the ordinance specifies that 5 cents is the minimum, retailers may charge more. Steve Morgan, manager of Hood River Rosauers said in an interview that they will only charge 5 cents per bag.

Not affected by the ordinance are small paper bags, paper ice cream bags, paper wine bags, or plastic produce, meat, and bulk food bags. Large paper bags given out by small retail shops that have the same capacity as barrel-sized bags, will also have a 5 cent fee and meet recycling requirements.

The ordinance only applies to stores within the City of Hood River. Although stores outside Hood River City limits will still be able to give out single-use plastic bags, the ordinance will greatly reduce the quantity given out in the area. Approximately 700,000 single-use plastic checkout bags were given out per year by Rosauers in Hood River at a cost of approximately 4 cents each in 2008 according to previous store manager Kevin Harris (Hood River News article March 26, 2008 by Susan Hess). The current manager, Morgan, confirmed that that is likely still a pretty close estimate of current use and cost.

Mayor Blackburn said citizens and businesses have mixed opinions about the bag ordinance. He said the most interesting comment he heard was from a Rosauers employee who said, “We’ve been expecting this. We’ve been waiting to be told.” Blackburn mentioned that one local retailer told him in response to the potential 5 cent fee, “that it could cost them 11 times that (5 cents) to give away a large paper bag,” and that this ordinance will give them an avenue to recoup some costs rather than having to implement fees for bags unilaterally.

Reusable bag availability is also required by this ordinance. All retail shops “must make reusable bags available at a reasonable cost to all customers.” When asked if the ‘Take a bag, leave a bag’ program that a local volunteer student group started at several area grocery stores would fill the requirement, he said it would “assuming the bin of bags wasn’t empty half the time.”

Retailers could be fined a minimum of $200 for each offense if they violate the ordinance. This fine would be per ‘reported violation’ according to Hood River Mayor Paul Blackburn. Although enforcement details are not yet mapped out and are somewhat discretionary, Blackburn expects that most of it will be in response to complaints and follow up compliance visits with warnings given out before the $200 fee is assigned.

Many people in Hood River County have been pushing for this environmental measure for months or years including some youth at Wy’east Middle School who wrote essays to the City Council, Hood River News, and EnviroGorge. Others are concerned about the impact to their business practices and will have to work on ways to adjust while keeping customers happy. It is clear that many businesses and most consumers in Hood River will have to adjust their bag purchasing and bag-toting habits starting in March of this year.