Baltimore County lawmakers could be the latest to consider restrictions on plastic shopping bags.
Perry Hall Democrat Vince Gardina is sponsoring a resolution that directs county auditors to investigate a policy that “encourages the discontinuance” of plastic bags in Baltimore County’s retail stores.
“It’s not proposing a ban necessarily,” Gardina said at a council work session Tuesday. “Banning plastic bags is not necessarily accepted in environmental circles as a benefit, either. I’m not pushing one option or another.”
Grocers who said they are already battling escalating food prices successfully fought proposed bans on plastic bags in Baltimore City, Annapolis and at the state level this year. Supporters said the bags can take 1,000 years to break down in a landfill and threaten wild life.
Supermarket lobbyists told legislators in Baltimore City that paper bags require four times as much energy to manufacture and ship than plastic, and cost about 5 cents per bag compared with 2 cents for plastic.
The Baltimore County Council is scheduled to vote on Gardina’s resolution at its meeting Monday. No one came to testify either in favor or against the study, but lawmakers said they aren’t ready to pass binding legislation anytime soon.
“I can’t imagine us passing a law that gives an economic disadvantage to city businesses,” said council Chairman Kevin Kamenetz, a Pikesville Democrat.
