Is Portland, OR, Reintroducing Plastic Bags -- Banned Since 2011? December 6, 2018

If I'm reading this article correctly, it sounds like Portland City Council just caved on "the plastic bag issue." The article is at KATU.

One has to read the last paragraph to get the complete story.

Apparently Portland City Council has thrown in the towel on the issue of plastic bags and Styrofoam containers. At least that's how I read the last paragraph:

Portland's new ordinance will repeal the city's codes on Styrofoam containers and plastic bags. The code that restricted the use of polystyrene foam has been in place since 1990; and, the code that banned plastic bags has been in place since 2011. 

The way I read that paragraph is that the city will rescind those codes.

Wow. That's hard for me to believe. I must be missing something.

How in the world would the Portland City Council manage to vote unanimously on this one? They will ban plastic straws.

The headline is misleading. The headline and the lede suggest that the city will ban straws and other single-use utensils. No. Not banned. Just not used unless the customer requests them.

Obviously a restaurant like McDonald's can still have a plastic straw dispenser arguing that no one will get a straw unless they "request one by pushing down on the little lever to dispense said straw."

I know restaurants like McDonald's do not carry silverware which begs the question: Every time a patron asks for a salad, must the $15/hour employee ask the customer if she would like a fork with that? Wow, I can already hear the snarky replies. Perhaps Portland folks carry forks in their purses and/or in their suit pockets. I know that when I was in the USAF, a lot of us carried our own silverware in our flight suits just in case the third world country we were flying to did not have utensils, plastic or otherwise.

If the plastic ware is re-used that would apparently meet the new standards. Perhaps McDonald's should place a plastic container next to the trash where folks can leave their plastic utensils to be used by others. If so, those would no longer be considered "single-use," would they?

Well, we'll see how this turns out. But for me, the bigger news is that apparently Portland is going back to plastic bags and Styrofoam containers.

From the article:

A proposal aimed at reducing litter and saving sea creatures passed through the Portland City Council with a unanimous vote on Wednesday.

The proposal forbids local restaurants, bars and coffee shops from giving out plastic straws or other single-use utensils unless they ask for them.

The same goes for plastic cutlery for take-out orders or deliveries.

The city restrictions would be imposed on all plastic serviceware - defined by the city as straws, stirrers, utensils, and condiment packaging.

Portland has long been a leader in enacting policy to cut back on litter. The Rose City has restricted the use of polystyrene foam since 1990, and passed a citywide plastic bag ban in July of 2011.

The new ordinance will repeal those city codes on Styrofoam containers and plastic bags, replacing them instead with the Code Prohibitions and Restrictions on Single-use Plastic.

I will be curious to hear if in fact Portland is going to re-introduce plastic bags. It seems to me that plastic bags make a lot more sense for consumers, especially for those camping out in Portland (the homeless) than paper bags -- particularly in a wet, rainy climate.

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