Park Ridge leaders broached the idea of following suit with other area municipalities in perhaps establishing single-use plastic bag restrictions, coming to a consensus at the City Council meeting Monday that there was enough interest for the discussion on the subject to continue. Sept. 16
At the meeting, Michelle LaGrotta, of the Sustainability Commission, spoke on a memo the commission delivered to the council. The memo mentioned several ideas on how to reduce single-use bags. It was noted that the idea first emerged years ago but Park Ridge has not done anything to curb single-use plastic bag usage.
“What we put together in this memo is several ways that different municipalities, and there’s also several states, … have put together regulations regarding single use bags,” LaGrotta said.
She mentioned concerns over litter, landfill use, microplastics and environmental damage.
Now, as neighboring communities look at the issue — and even take action — Park Ridge leaders want to again ask residents and businesses to weigh in on the matter. After the community weighs in, the City Council could further act, though the process has no timeline.
“I think the idea would be just to know if we want to move forward,” said Alderperson Mwende Lefler.
The council seemed amenable to doing something but sought public opinion on the solution.
Only one person from the public spoke on the issue, and she supported it, noting the public has pushed for a single-use plastic bag ban in town since at least 2012. Since then, several towns including Chicago, Oak Park and Evanston, have initiated bag fees on single use plastic bags, joining cities across the nation that have set a charge for, banned or restricted their use to cut down on litter.
“What our recommendation is, what we were going for in the memo, is an overall ban on plastic bags and then a fee on paper bags,” LaGrotta said.
The council seemed open to further discussion but members seemed concerned about some details regarding implementation.
LaGrotta said so far she had not heard from any retailers, though someone did reach out to the Chamber of Commerce.
Alderman John Moran suggested possibly limiting use of the bags at first or banning them in stores over 3,000 square feet.
“Who does that hit and who does it not,” asked Mayor Marty Maloney. “Maybe one group could implement it in a year? The other group would implement it in three years? It would be helpful to know who falls into what category.”
Lefler said stores should be part of the community conversation, and Alderman Richard Sanchez said he supported that.
“I think there is a consensus (for a community conversation),” said Moran.
He directed Community Development Director Drew Awsumb to start asking business leaders and community members what they would prefer to see.
“I think there’s enough option choices about how you’d design a program that there’d have to be a discussion,” Awsumb said.
Maloney said additional efforts would be made to get other organizations’ input.
“We’ll do some of the legwork to reach out to the Chamber of Commerce and some of our businesses,” the mayor said.
From there, the subject would come more officially before the City Council for discussion, though there was no date set for follow up.
Jesse Wright is a freelancer.
