Baltimore lawmakers took a step closer Tuesday to making the city the second in the nation to ban plastic bags in major supermarkets.
A City Council committee voted to advance a plastic bag reduction bill that would require grocery stores with at least $500,000 in annual sales to use only recyclable paper bags.
The vote came after two days of public testimony, in which supporters said the bags, which can take 1,000 years to degrade, choke Baltimore?s waterways and threaten wildlife.
“We have to take these things out of the waste stream,” said Councilman James Kraft, the bill?s sponsor.
The city of Annapolis shelved a similar proposal last year, and the idea never made it out of a General Assembly committee earlier this year.
Only San Francisco has passed a ban, though other cities are considering taxing plastic bags or requiring grocers to recycle them.
Under Kraft?s proposal, stores must post signs warning shoppers of the ban by Jan. 1, and implement it one year later.
But several grocers said paper bags require four times as much energy to manufacture and ship, and cost about 5 cents per bag, compared with 2 cents for plastic.
Customers would absorb the extra costs, said Robert Santoni Jr. of Santoni?s market on Lombard Street.
“Who?s going to be the first to put that bag surcharge on the bottom of the receipt?” Santoni said. “Not me.”
Major retailers such as Giant and Safeway encourage patrons to bring used plastic bags or shop with reusable bags, said Gregory TenEyck, Safeway?s Eastern director of public affairs.
Many consumers would oppose a ban as a matter of personal preference, TenEyck said.
“Customers just prefer plastic bags,” he said. “They are more durable, more efficient and they are easier to carry.”
The proposal will go before the City Council for a second reading Monday.
