This September Coleen put an ordinance on the Administration and Public Works Committee agenda that would tax consumers a quarter for each plastic shopping bag they received while shopping in Evanston.  The blogosphere surrounding Evanstonnow.com immediately lit up with accusations of another "knee jerk tax" forwarded by "elite green PC cultist savants" designed to drive consumers straightaway to the retail outlets of Skokie and Wilmette.  Some sarcastically celebrated the perservative powers plastic bags have on dog poop, while others criticized placing an "unnecessary financial burden" on poorer residents to bolster the city's general fund.  Many readers wondered why folks couldn't just BYOB to avoid the tax, and those read in the plastic bag tax literature (Bill Smith for one) pointed out the low success rate such bills have had elsewhere.

Coleen pulled the ordinance before the committee date for further consideration.  A $.25 tax on plastic shopping bags would curb their use if it passed, and given the current political environment regarding "Big Government" and taxes you have to wonder.  Precedent elsewhere suggests it wouldn't survive passage.  Oakland, CA tried the same thing several years ago, only to have the chemical industry charge the tax did nothing to address paper bag use.  So given the noise and bluster around this apparently straightforward legislation you have to wonder; what was Coleen thinking?

Coleen was thinking we should discuss how to reduce the use of plastic bags in Evanston.  Being our alderman she took action to start the conversation by bringing it to committee; the place conversations start on future legislation.  Bill Smith at Evanston Now brought it to our attention, not because of any personal animosity towards bags, but because that's what news guys should do; inform public discourse.

As a small businessman and community activist I was heartened by Coleen's action, and worried about its success.  So I took it to Citizens' Greener Evanston (CGE) and the Governmental Affairs Committee of the Evanston Chamber of Commerce.  To round out the conversation I included ISEN-SE, the environmental umbrella student group at Northwestern.  Perhaps not surprisingly both CGE and ISEN-SE liked the idea of reducing plastic bag use.  Both also leaned towards education rather than taxation as the main tool for making it happen.  As an environmentalist I'd heard the argument before; people will stop using plastic bags if you demonstrate the bags' impact.  Whole Food eliminated their plastic bag use, and had substituted donations to reward those BYOB folks.  Couldn't we apply the model elsewhere?

Paper bags require four times the resources in production and distribution than plastic bags, and take more space in the landfill.  Unless we really want to tussle with the US Chemistry Council we need to consider both paper and plastic.  Which made the reaction of the Chamber of Commerce that much more surprising, because after a long and spirited conversation they came away thinking Evanston businesses could survive a bag ordinance.

I should stress spirited.  Noone would readily entertain a tax.  They saw such a spigot to the general fund as punitive and detrimental to Evanston business.  So we kept talking.  As it turns out most of the folks at the Governmental Affairs Committee routinely carried reusable shopping bags in their cars, and even admitted to using them on occasion.  Everyone admitted an honest and abiding concern for the environment.  And most agreed Evanston would need some help in changing shopping behaviors.  They even helped identify specific tools (Trash-o-Saurus; how about check out displays) for moving customers past the paper-or-plastic paradigm.

So where have these conversations led?  Seems like most folks want to move past paper-or-plastic, and recognize the need to educate their neighbors to do the same.  Most important; they wanted to make a difference.  If we were to keep using disposable plastic bags, Jonathan Perman wondered, couldn't we use recycled, oxo-biodegradable bags?  Why not reintroduce the Trash-o-Saurus, or for that matter check out displays hawking Jewel-Osco's cheap reusable bags?  And if a modest surcharge for the use of disposable bags went to fund sustainability efforts in Evanston, perhaps it would help remind folks to pull the reusable bags from the back seat next time.

Coleen will hopefully reintroduce legislation this January that accounts for the conversation thus far.  It won't go directly to City Council; may in fact take a few months of percolating through the A&PW Committee first.  And that's a good thing, because after many years of attending to this issue I've come to realize that, above and beyond inspiring documentaries, effective legislation or grass roots organizing, its the conversation including all those things, incorporating all those ideas that brings about positive change.