Environment Oregon hosted a kick-off event for their citywide Ban the Bag campaign Tuesday in downtown Eugene.
The event featured the Bag Monster, a costume consisting of 500 plastic bags, representing the average number an American uses in a year.
Lane County Commissioner Rob Handy, as well as a local coalition of members, attended the kick-off event.
“This is the first formal announcement that there is a coordinated effort to work with city council and to make this happen in the near future,” Preservation Associate for Environment Oregon Dave Mathews said@@https://www.environmentoregon.org/about-us/staff/dave-mathews@@.
Environment Oregon and OSPIRG mailed letters — one for every city councilor — after the event, stating their aims to Mayor Kitty Piercy and the City Council.
In a council meeting on Monday night, members of the two organizations also asked city council members to consider a ban on plastic bags.
During her presentation, University student Amanda Ellis@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Amanda+Ellis@@ stated that plastic pollution affects 260 species worldwide and that plastic debris leeches toxins into the environment.
“Once we create this kind of pollution, it is hard to get rid of it,” Ellis said. “Nothing we use for a few minutes should last on this planet for hundreds of years.”
Mathews said there are practical solutions that could have a huge impact on the environment.
“I am really excited about moving forward with city council to figure out how to solve this problem,” he said.
Oregonians use 1.7 billion one-use plastic bags every year.@@http://www.portlandonline.com/mayor/?c=53123@@ According to Environment Oregon, these bags are often discarded and ultimately harm wildlife on the Oregon coast, with many ending up in the Pacific Ocean.
Environment Oregon and OSPIRG have collected 1,100 signatures to present to the city council and 50 small businesses have also signed petitions supporting the ban, according to student representatives.
After the presentation, City Councilor Alan Zelenka@@http://www.registerguard.com/web/polls/27176779-56/council-ban-bags-plastic-amendment.html.csp@@ said he would ask his council colleagues to talk about a possible ban. For a topic to be placed on the council’s agenda, four or more of the eight-member council would need to agree to discuss the topic.
Environment Oregon hopes Eugene will follow in the steps of Portland, which passed a law banning single-use plastic bags on July 21 and enacted the law last month.@@http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/news/2011/07/21/portland-votes-to-ban-plastic-bags.html@@
“City council has to have a work session on the idea,” Mathews said. “They have to hear from the public on what this would sound like (and) what this would look like in the city of Eugene. After that feedback, they will draft an ordinance that will basically codify everything from that discussion.”
A proposed statewide ban did not pass in the State Legislature last June, so environmental groups have subsequently decided to focus on banning bags at the local level.
“Starting on the local level is the way to go,” Oregon League of Conservation Voters member Ashley Miller said@@http://www.linkedin.com/pub/ashley-miller/6/12/956@@. “Plastic bags are a very expensive clean-up cost for the city.”
Eugene has been talking about passing a ban against plastic bags since 2007, according to Mathews. Environment Oregon and OSPIRG have both been working on the issue for about two months and hope to see a bill passed in the coming months.