BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) - A local group continues to advocate for reusable bags in Bloomington despite a state law that restricts any regulations on plastic bans by local communities.
Bring Your Bag Bloomington is hosting a workshop next week at the College Mall Kroger in which people can convert old T-shirts into bags.
It’s the latest outreach program for the group that formed in 2014 to work toward a local ban on, or fee to use, single-use plastic bags. That effort failed after a bill passed by the Indiana Legislature in 2016 prohibited local governments from enacting such regulations.
The initial goal of the group was to introduce a city ordinance in Bloomington that would either ban, or make people pay a small fee for, using plastic bags at the grocery store and other retail businesses, according to Libby Gwynn, a Bloomington resident who co-founded the group.
The group, which is part of the Center for Sustainable Living, started with just a few members. “There weren’t enough of us to take it on as a project at that point,” in 2014, Gwynn said.
But after a couple of years, the group had 30-40 active members of all ages and backgrounds. The group met every month, working on their concept for a proposal, talking with city council members and eventually drafting an ordinance based on others that have been implemented in communities around the U.S.
In May 2015, members of Bring Your Bag Bloomington met with the city’s legal department to discuss the proposed ordinance. They told the group it needed more research, and so the members spent the summer learning about what 12 other U.S. communities had done to pass similar ordinances. They pinpointed cities that were about the same size as Bloomington as well as college towns. The cities also included Austin, Texas, and Portland, Oregon.
The hope was that in fall 2015, a city ordinance would be introduced to the city council. But that changed.
“Too many other things came up that (the city council) had to decide on before the end of the year,” Gwynn said. The group was told it would be brought up early in 2016.
“In January 2016, we got the news about Senate Bill 1053,” Gwynn said. The bill prohibits local governments from approving regulations exactly like the one Bring Your Bag Bloomington was working toward. Gwynn said the state bill was “pushed through by the plastics industry and supported by all the Republicans, more or less.” Gwynn said the plastics industry learned of the efforts in Bloomington after some local people toured a plastics factory.
In response to SB 1053, Bloomington people called and wrote to their legislators, working hard to stop it. But by March, the bill had become law.
“We were pretty depressed after that,” Gwynn said. The number of people in the group declined, but Gwynn and the others have rallied, doing workshops and attending events to let people know how much better it is for the environment to reuse bags, or even make reusable bags.
“We’re taking a grassroots approach, which has always been part of our mission,” Gwynn said, adding that even if the group reaches just one person at a time, it’s worth the effort. When Bring Your Bag Bloomington members give out reusable bags, at Kroger and elsewhere, it’s always well-received. “The response is overwhelmingly positive,” Gwynn said.
Bring Your Bag Bloomington had a recent donation of reusable bags from Lucky’s that the group will distribute. Kroger has helped in the past, and is giving the group a space to run its workshop on creating reusable bags out of old T-shirts.
Last fall, Bring Your Bag Bloomington was at the College Mall Kroger, handing out the store’s reusable bags in the foyer during Indiana University’s Homecoming weekend. More than 200 bags were passed out in one day, according to Jackie Howard, community outreach and event coordinator for College Mall Kroger.
“It was great,” Howard said. The group was supposed to be at the store handing out the reusable bags for four hours. When the bags were all gone after 2 1/2 hours, the group’s members stayed to talk to customers, something that impressed Howard.
Reusable bags, which Kroger sells for 99 cents to $5.99 for a freezer bag, are among the items the company likes to hand out, Howard said. “We have a lot of customers who use plastic and paper, but we want to provide other options to our customers,” she said.
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The (Bloomington) Herald-Times, https://bit.ly/2kkzGSs
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Information from: The Herald Times, https://www.heraldtimesonline.com
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