BROOKINGS – The Brookings City Council listened to many options regarding the use of single-use plastic bags – including trying to bring a plastics recycling plant to town – but didn’t make any decisions at its meeting Tuesday.
One thing that was stressed by the councilors was even though recycling facilities will no longer take plastic bags, people can still drop their used bags off at Walmart and Hy-Vee, like they have in the past.
Sustainability Council report
Jennifer McLaughlin, chair of the Brookings Sustainability Council, and Robin Buterbaugh, member of the Sustainability Council, delivered a report on plastic bags.
Global emphasis now is on how to reduce use of plastic bags and other single use plastics, Buterbaugh said.
McLaughlin said they researched a bag ban, a bag fee and education.
Plastic bags have a 12-minute lifespan, but they take thousands of years to decompose, Buterbaugh said. They can turn into microplastics which are eaten by fish and animals, even ones at the landfill.
Ironically, plastic bags take less energy to make than canvas or cloth bags, but canvas and cloth break down much more quickly, she added.
Ban
McLaughlin listed the positives of a plastic bag ban:
• It does reduce pollution;
• They are difficult to recycle, so having fewer bags means there are less to dispose of;
• “We want to be the first city (in South Dakota) that would do a plastic bag ban,” she said. There are about 360 cities nation-wide that have banned the bags.
After plastic bans, paper bag usage went up in stores. Paper bags are “more intensive” to make, McLaughlin said.
“It’s more environmentally damaging to make a paper bag versus a plastic bag,” she said, adding a paper bag decomposes faster.
Another consideration is what types of plastics would a ban cover, including thicknesses, if it affects plastic and paper bags, and what stores it affects, including small local ones, she said.
Fees
Fees have been known to reduce plastics use, and range from 5 cents to 25 cents, McLaughlin said.
You can charge the user when they use the bags or you can charge the retailer an additional fee on top of the waste and recycling fee.
How will that fee impact low-income community members, and how do we make sure they can still use a bag when they go shopping, she asked.
“You also need to decide where that fee money goes,” McLaughlin said, and how it will be handled.
How will you handle situations like Hy-Vee Aisles Online, how would people pick up their groceries in that case, she asked.
Increasing education
Another option is to increase education surrounding the detriment of plastics and encourage people to use reusable bags, Buterbaugh said.
Social media, booths at events, and the Farmers Market can be used to get the word out. Work with retailers like Hy-Vee and Walmart that may have recycling available from a different source and encourage people to bring bags back to those stores. Showcase businesses that reduce their use of single-use plastics, possibly by using compostable take-out containers and other methods.
Recommendations
The Sustainability Council recommends the city starts with education, McLaughlin said.
“Showing community members the impacts of plastics, what they can do instead of using the single-use plastic bag and then showcasing again those businesses that are doing well,” she said.
“We feel people can start understanding why it’s important that we reduce those single-use plastics,” she said, adding businesses should have an opportunity to reduce plastics on their own “before a rule is implemented.”
Another thing that came up in the conversation was other single-use plastics like straws and plastic bottles, “so that’s definitely on our mind, as well” and what options might be there, McLaughlin said.
Council comments
It’s a wonderful opportunity for all the commissions, committees and boards to work out a solution, Mayor Keith Corbett said, and he thanked them for all their work.
Councilor Dan Hansen worried that current public service announcements say plastic bags will no longer be recyclable, “(It) probably doesn’t emphasis the fact that you can still take them back to retailers. I worry that when people read that – if they’re in the habit of taking them back to Walmart or Hy-Vee or other stores – they might read that and simply say ‘I can’t recycle them anymore’ and maybe stop taking them back,” Hansen said.
He asked if they found examples of businesses that reward customers who bring back plastic bags.
Nothing specific, McLaughlin said.
The Sustainability Council reached out to 28 different communities around Brookings’ size, to see if they had a ban and if not, what they were doing instead, but none reported incentive programs, Buterbaugh said.
Councilor Nick Wendell said he was more interested in an incentive-based program than one that penalizes anyone. He’d like the city to reward local retailers who opt to stop using plastic bags and to get more information on what would work in that situation.
“I’d like for us to take this report and take a bit of a deeper dive on incentives that might be out there,” Wendell said.
He wants the city to do a cost analysis of finding a recycling company that would make it as easy as possible for residents to recycle plastic bags.
Councilor Patty Bacon wanted to know how Hy-Vee’s incentive program is working for them and whether it has decreased the number of bags used.
Bacon spoke to someone from the American Plastic Bag Association – which represents plastic bag manufacturers – about the bag tax in Washington, D.C., and was told D.C. has taken the money raised from the tax and is using it to clean up a river that flows through D.C.
“The interesting comment was they’re making a lot of money,” Bacon noted. “In other words, they aren’t reducing the amount of plastic bags being used in the city, people are just (saying) ‘it’s easier, I’ll just pay the fee’ and continue to use plastic bags.”
Councilor Holly Tilton Byrne wanted to move forward with establishing collection spots and finding someone who could do the recycling.
“What does Hy-Vee then do with (the bags they collect)? That is something I’d like more information on,” Tilton Byrne said.
She wants to highlight businesses that have reduced their consumption of plastics.
Tilton Byrne also wants to continue looking into all single-use plastics, like to-go boxes, straws, “even plastic bags that you line your trash can with,” because she sees it as not just a local issue, but a global one and “it’s far more urgent than maybe we are treating it. … I really fear what might happen 20-30 years down the line.”
Councilor Ope Niemeyer said the city “should take the next step – the easy step.”
“Our community, if anybody in the state of South Dakota, would be more receptive to try to do something to start with. Maybe we need to lead the way,” Niemeyer said.
Councilor Leah Brink observed that with so many different cities making their own laws, “that’s a mess really quickly,” she said.
Attracting new business
Rick Weible, Brookings resident, had sent a letter to each councilor and said they were looking at the situation incorrectly. A former mayor and councilor in Minnesota, he wants them to look internally.
Weible said they were focusing too narrowly. They should be looking at how we manage the earth’s resources. We use nuclear waste to create energy; we can use plastic bags for good, too, he said.
He provided links in his letter to the council on how plastic bags can be re-used, referencing a five-minute video of 20 things you can do with plastic bags, including ironing them with wax paper to create other projects.
There are companies close by that re-use the plastic bags, he said. Walmart and Hy-Vee partner with an Indiana company that makes plastic pavers and fences. There’s also plastic lumber, chairs and planters being made.
“The single-use option has been solved – here’s the startling news – since 2011 they’ve been doing this,” Weible said.
“Boy, did (Brookings) miss the ball on this sustainability stuff,” Weible said, adding there are great local resources, including South Dakota State University and development programs.
“There’s no reason why we can’t be smart about this and potentially look at ways to attract a business to relocate here to solve the problem,” Weible said.
“So rather than looking at it as a problem, look at it as an investment opportunity,” he said.
Fundraising
Jaixai Reineke, a ninth grader, noted her school has a program to collect Hy-Vee receipts and return them for money the school can use.
She wants to do something like that with the plastic bags, which she thinks would inspire people to recycle the plastic bags.
Reineke knows the focus is on plastic bags but said we should think about what we can do to stop using all single-use plastics, like utensils.
Brookings Backpack
Cathy Ching is the project coordinator for the Brookings Backpack Project, which sends food home with kids who might otherwise go without, and they use plastic bags.
“Our concern is we pack about 463 bags of food … for children in Brookings County. We’ve kinda looked at other options, but we really haven’t come up with anything,” Ching said.
“Right now, Sherwin-Williams donates their bags to us and they work really nice,” she said.
Ching asked the council if they had a timeframe for incorporating changes so Brookings Backpack has time to look at options.
“Because we certainly don’t want to not be able to get this food to the kids for the weekend,” Ching said.
Issue not going away
City Manager Paul Briseno predicted this would not be the last conversation the city has about recycling because changes are happening so fast. He’s thankful the Sustainability Council and other groups are looking into it.
“I think marketing is going to be essential in education of the public as we move forward,” he said.
Briseno has already had conversations about bringing businesses to Brookings to help with these efforts regionally “because everyone’s going to be facing this in South Dakota.”
“The unfortunate thing is we have such a small population in this state, it’s hard; but what’s great is we have such wonderful people in this community that love to recycle,” Briseno said.
Contact Jodelle Greiner at jgreiner@brookingsregister.com.
