Battle of the Bags

In its drive to defeat bans on disposable bags, the plastics industry and its retail allies have become the loudest voices in favor of bag recycling.

"The trend is clear that recycling is the best solution," said Keith Christman, senior director of packaging at Progressive Bag Affiliates, an arm of the American Chemistry Council. "It can be made into other stuff, as long as it becomes recognized and (people) see that it can be a valuable commodity."

But critics say that plastic bag recycling has never proven effective on a large scale. Between 1 and 5 percent of plastic shopping bags distributed by retailers are typically recovered through such programs, according to Darby Hoover, a recycling expert with the Natural  Resources Defense Council.

Bags foul recycling machinery
One reason for the low rate is that municipal curbside recycling programs that collect glass, paper, plastic and aluminum products can't easily deal with loose plastic bags, which tend to get caught in and jam sorting equipment at recycling facilities. Some curbside programs will take plastic bags if they are bundled, but even then the commodity is low-grade and brings a low price because it gets dirty during handling and transportation.

These problems force the plastic industry to champion an approach that relies on consumers to return clean plastic bags to recycling containers at stores. While such collection points have been in existence for years in some areas, in-store recycling has never caught on.

The market for recycled plastic bags also is tiny. At the moment, a single manufacturer, the Trex Co. of Winchester, Va., purchases 70 percent of the plastic bags recovered nationwide, mixing the plastic with wood scraps to make outdoor decking. But the company lost $75 million last year, raising questions about the long-term viability of the end market.

Despite such problems, some cities are still optimistic that plastic bag recycling can work with enough support.

Among the most aggressive is Phoenix, where discussions by the City Council of a ban on disposable plastic bags instead led to a citywide bag recovery program called "Bag Central Station." The program allows any plastic bag — regardless of where it was distributed — to be returned at any of the prominently marked receptacles placed with retail outlets. The city has coupled the recycling push with education efforts and a large giveaway of reusable bags.

Al Shiya, a spokesman for the Phoenix Public Works Department, said the program was the result of a "very concerted effort on the part of Arizona grocers to respond in a positive way to a threat on the part of some City Council people to ban plastic bags."

The program, which took effect in November, will be assessed in June.

Recycling tests can lead to bans
If the recycling numbers don't stack up, however, Phoenix and others could end up taking a look at restrictions.

That is how San Francisco ended up with its ban on disposable plastic bags. The ordinance, which went into effect Nov. 1, mandates that large grocery stores and pharmacies (over $1 million in annual revenue) can distribute only paper bags with 40 percent recycled content, compostable plastic bags and reusable bags.