Title: Lawsuit filed against Arizona for outlawing plastic bag ban / Banning the ban that banned

banning plastic bags

By: Brianna Fields
Tags: Senate Bill 1241, Ban the Bag, Environmental Sustainability, Lauren Kuby Lawsuit
A lawsuit has been filed against the state of Arizona, claiming that Senate Bill 1241, the piece of
legislation that banned the ability for cities to outlaw plastic bags, is unconstitutional.
Since 2007, Flagstaff had been working toward regulating plastic bags, but last April the state
blocked any potential of regulation with Senate Bill 1241. On Sept. 30, Lauren Kuby, a Tempe
city council woman, filed a lawsuit against the state. This bill creates conflicts between the rights
of businesses, environmental sustainability and state versus local sovereignty.
There are two laws within a single law and the Arizona constitution forbids a law to have more
than one subject, Kuby said. This law not only prohibits cities from managing plastic waste it
also prevents cities from enacting benchmarking ordinances.
Benchmarking ordinances are requirements for commercial and residential buildings larger than
25,000 square feet to record the total energy use of the building.
The state law also says that the bills subject title has to explain what the bill is, in this case the
title is about energy requirements. It certainly doesnt explain the plastic part of the bill, Kuby
said. In the case of Senate Bill 1241 the subject title is, Relating to energy regulation
prohibition.
Kuby believes that waste management should be a local concern and that this bill is preventing
cities from being more sustainable. Before Bill 1241 was passed, Flagstaff and Tempe were well
on there way to passing some kind of some kind of plastic bag regulation, while the city of
Bisbee had banned plastic bags a year earlier.
The city of Bisbee, which banned bags on Earth Day a year ago, issued a press release last April
saying that they intended to continuing enforcing the bag ban. The Attorney General has yet to
respond to the press release.
After only 45 days of the ban being in place, I noticed there were no bags on or near the
highway, said Andy Haratyk, Bisbees Public Works Operations Manager, in an article from the
Arizona Sonora News. The impact happened so quickly.
Our Senate Representative for District Six Sylvia Allen and House Representative Brenda Barton
both voted yes on this bill.
I believe that this type of issue needs to be more uniform across the state because it creates a
burden upon our businesses, Allen said. She believes that regulating plastic bags will hurt
business and that bans could be passed in cities even if businesses objected.

Allen compared this cause to the movement in the 90s that banned paper bags. She also saw a
similarity between this issue and the banning of fireworks in Ariz. The irregular laws in counties
across the state allowed businesses to pay for stocks of fireworks only have them banned, she
said.
Individuals make up their own decisions about what kind of packaging they want. They can
certainly buy the cloth bags and take them with them. Stores on their own need to determine if
this is a good move for them, Allen said.
Last January, Flagstaff surveyed 45 businesses about the issue of banning or regulating plastic
bags. Out of those surveyed, 95 percent identified as a local business. Businesses that supported
some kind of regulation on bags made up 64 percent of the community. In the comment section,
many business representatives were unsure if and how much this would affect them.
I wouldnt mind [buying bags]. Even if there was a fee it would just make you realize that these
things aren't free once they get lost in the environment...The fact that they're free is probably the
worst part about them, said Dylan Lenzen chair of Green Jacks and Senior Environmental
Science Major.
For Flagstaff and any city that deals with heavy rain plastic bags can create even more
problems by blocking waterways like storm drains. The year round high winds blow bags into
trees and create extra costs for the Cinder Lake Landfill, a landfill used by Flagstaff.
The landfill is located next to Coconino National Forest and bags regularly blow into the national
park. As a result, the landfill has had to build extra fences and pay additional personnel to pick
up the bags, according to Todd Barnell a member of the Flagstaff Sustainability Commision.
I know quite frankly that an awful lot of the larger grocery stores were fine with [regulating
plastic bags] because the bottom line is its an expense for them to have to buy these humongous
pallets of plastic bags to be handing them out for free, Barnell said. Historically, cities are the
ones that actually have the responsibility for going ahead and managing their waste.
There is no way of telling how long it will take for the state to address Kubys attempt to ban the
banning of the plastic bag ban. Until then everyone will need to make their own choice about
using reusable bags for their grocery shopping.