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San Jose, California:
A plastic bag ban was implemented January 1, 2012 despite polls that showed it was opposed by the majority of the people. Oddly, the city decided not to increase the paper bag "minimum charge" from 10 cents to 25 cents on Jan 1, 2014. Apparently they felt the thumb screws were tight enough to control user behavior (even though twice as many people purchase paper bags as use reusable bags). In reality, they didn't want to stir up the anger in the citizens, that would very well have caused them to demand the bag ban be repealed.
The Campbell city council voted 3 to 1 to force a bag ban onto its citizens starting January 2014. Our poll of registered voters showed that greater than 50% of the voters would overturn the bag ban if they were given the chance. We launched an effort to gather signatures to repeal the bag ban, but the first attempt fell short before the deadline. (Organizing volunteers and doing the work required to gather signatures is a challenging task without outside funding.) .
Walnut Creek, Ca. and Huntington Beach, Ca:
Citizens rose up in at least two other cities in California to gather signatures to repeal bag bans. These also were, unfortunately, unable to overcome the bar required to get a repeal on the ballot. See the Speak Up for Walnut Creek website for more information.
State of Washington: Seattle and Issaquah:
The Seattle first implemented a plastic bag tax, but a petition resulted in this being voted on by the people, and the people rejected the bag tax by 58% to 42%. Despite the clear indication from the public, the city council then went ahead and banned plastic bags instead! (Somehow they felt that because people objected to paying 10 cents to get a plastic bag they should just take them away completely instead?)
In Issaquah, Wa, volunteers gathered enough signatures to qualify a bag ban repeal for the ballot. Unfortunately, the vote hit during an off-peak election that also contained a school bond measure, so the turnout was low and biased, resulting in a 52% to 48% vote to keep the bag ban.
Like other misled city councils, the city council of Homer, Alaska passed a bag ban in February 2013. Citizens in Homer Alaska collected enough signatures to force the city's recent bag ban to a vote of the people. On October 1, 2013 the people of Homer OVERTURNED the bag ban by 57% to 43%.
Durango, Colorado
The city council in Durango implemented an ordinance to tax grocery bags. Citizens rose up and collected enough signatures for a vote, and the public OVERTURNED the bag tax by 56% to 44% in November, 2013.
Basalt, Colorado
Citizens in Basalt Colorado collected enough signatures to force the city council's plastic bag ban to a vote, and it was overturned by the people in April, 2012 by 52.5% to 47.5%
Carbondale, Colorado
As in Basalt, citizens in Carbondale Colorado rose up and demanded a vote on the city council passed bag ban. In April 2012, the people of Carbondale narrowly decided to keep the bag ban by 51% to 49% (718 to 691). However we applaud the fact that at least the citizens got to vote!
Newport, Oregon
In May 2013, the city council of Newport Oregon was bold enough to ask their citizens to vote on a bag ban. (This is the first city in Oregon that actually asked their citizens.) The citizens completely REJECTED a bag ban by 57% to 43% !
State of California
After bag bans began to be passed (by heavily liberal areas) in California, the state then acted on the state level to implement the bag ban on everyone else in 2014. However, the plastic bag companies collected enough signatures to force it to a vote of the people. The plastic bag companies then collected enough signatures to add a second measure that would force any fees collected to be donated to environmental cleanup (instead of the stores pocketing the fees). Apparently, their thinking was that if the bag ban did pass, that the fee diversion would hurt the big grocery companies who pushed for it. (It is uncertain what their thinking was...) Big Grocers (Safeway, Lucky's, etc.) put in millions of dollars to support the plastic bag ban. The plastic bag companies only campaigned for the second measure. Unfortunately, this created confusion, mistrust, and misunderstanding by the voters. The bag ban passed with 52% approval, but the fee diversion failed by a wider margin. We believe if the bag companies had just focused on the main measure, and pointed out that big grocers were funding millions of dollars to have the government enable them to charge 10 cents per bag that was previously free, that there was a good chance of success.
Idaho, Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa Missouri, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Florida
After seeing the mess created in California and other stated, these states all passed laws to prohibit or restrict local plastic bag bans.
Do you have information on votes or efforts in another city? If so, please send us your information and we will post it here!
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