PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Two weeks in, Philadelphia’s ban on single-use plastic bags is getting mixed results.
Some retailers have jumped right in, while others make it clear they will wait until the city starts issuing fines for violations next spring.
This causes a dilemma for retailer Andrew Klein.
Early this year, his father ordered a large shipment of plastic bags for the family supermarket in Fairmount. They came in June, right before the first phase of the bag ban.
He must dispose of them somehow.
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Would landfilling them be any better for the environment than using them?
So customers are still getting the bags. Right now, there’s no penalty. He hopes they’ll be gone by April when fines kick in.
At ShopRite in Roxborough, plastic bags are gone from check-out lanes.
Reuseable bags are there, available for a dollar. But down the street at Acme, white plastic bags hang defiantly from metal stands.
Acme declined to comment, but a clerk told me emphatically the store had no intention of eliminating the now-illegal bags until fines kick in.
The delivery service Gopuff says it’s still “testing bag alternatives.”
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The ban’s sponsor, Councilmember Mark Squilla, said that’s okay.
"It’s really important to allow these businesses the time to get it right, and we have to get the mindset of not only businesses but consumers," said Squilla.
"We’re hoping this allowance of time gets the message out there that there will be no more plastic bags being distributed in the city of Philadelphia, and let’s work together to see that all happens."
Some places have substituted thicker plastic bags because of a clause in the bill that uses thickness to define single-use plastic. Squilla said that was a technical error, and he plans to amend the bill to correct it.
Consumers’ attitudes seem equally mixed.
"I hate it, actually," said one person.
"I got a brown bag for the first time yesterday, and it was a little difficult to carry, but that’s just my opinion."
"I like it," another person said. "I’ve always been bringing my own for years, so I’m all for it."
Some customers like it so much, they’re turning in violators.
The city received two dozen complaints about non-compliance in the first ten days the law was in effect.
The city says it issued a warning for each one and, come April 1, will be issuing fines.
