A reusable shopping bag of the kind shoppers turned to as plastic bag rules spread. Photo: TooHotToHandle at English Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Starting Aug. 1, 2015, shoppers at Evanston’s biggest chain stores will have to ask for something other than a free plastic bag at the register. To get residents ready, the City of Evanston spent the early summer handing out reusable totes and setting up places to swap them.
The City Council approved the rule in July 2014. It covers chain or franchise stores larger than 10,000 square feet. A Daily Northwestern report on the vote counted 27 affected businesses. City materials named Aldi, Barnes & Noble, Best Buy, CVS, Jewel-Osco, Marshalls, Target, Trader Joe’s, Walgreens, Whole Foods and The Home Depot among them, along with Sam’s Club, PetSmart and the office-supply chains.
The idea traces to the city’s 2008 Climate Action Plan. It came back to the council after Chicago passed a partial ban in April 2014.
What the ordinance does and does not cover
Affected stores may not hand out bags made mostly of plastic and thinner than 2.25 millimeters at the point of sale, unless the bag is certified commercially compostable. Paper bags are still allowed. So are heavier retail plastic bags, and the thin bags used inside a store for produce, meat and similar items. Customers can bring any bag they like. Restaurants, takeout counters and independent stores fall outside the rule.
Giveaways and Share a Bag
The city’s “Think Outside the Bag” campaign gave out “We Love Evanston” nylon totes that fold into a small pouch, one per resident, first come, first served. Sessions ran from June 8 through July 20 at the Chicago Avenue/Main Street library branch, Robert Crown Center, the Ecology Center, Levy Senior Center, the main library, Chandler-Newberger Center, Morton Civic Center, Noyes Cultural Arts Center, Gibbs-Morrison Cultural Center and the North Branch library. The June 23 session ran from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Levy Senior Center, 300 Dodge Ave.
A separate “Share a Bag” program, which began June 12, let people leave unwanted reusable bags at public sites and take what they needed. The sites were the three library locations, Morton Civic Center, Chandler-Newberger Center, the Ecology Center, Fleetwood-Jourdain Community Center, Gibbs-Morrison, Levy Senior Center, Noyes and Robert Crown. Plastic bags and film could be dropped off there for recycling.
Local businesses and organizations could also order their own custom-printed versions of the tote to sell or give away.
The Daily Northwestern reported that city sustainability staff described early reaction as mostly positive. A Jewel-Osco representative told the paper that compliant bags cost somewhat more but fit the goal of keeping waste out of landfills.
Sources: Daily Northwestern, July 30, 2014 and June 17, 2015.
Margaret Whitfield is the editor of The Evanston Edge and covers local government, development and neighborhoods.
