Abington Township is in the initial stages of putting together a ban on single-use plastic bags.
In October 2023, the township’s Enviornmental Advisory Council (EAC) hosted a public information session to lay out plans for a Single-Use Plastics and Polystyrene Products Ban Ordinance.
According to Rich Manfredi, Township Manager, the information then went to the Board of Commissioners, and in January 2024, the EAC went before commissioners to answer their questions.
While the wheels are in motion, Manfredi said that action of any kind is still a ways off.
“Based on the feedback, in this case, there’s more information that needs to be found,” Manfredi said. “The EAC has to get their information together and distribute it to the Board. Until that happens, we won’t know if it’s up for an information session or a working session.”
Manfredi said things are in a holding pattern until then.
“At a minimum, the next step the Board would consider is a vote to advertise the ordinance for consider, which would trigger further action,” he said.
Of potential interest to voters, businesses and commissioners is a New York Times article published on Thursday which suggests California’s experience with bag bans over the past decade has been less than productive.
The article, titled “California Tried to Ban Plastic Grocery Bags. It Didn’t Work.” says that Californians have thrown away more plastic bags, by weight, than when the law first passed almost 10 years ago, according to figures from CalRecycle, California’s recycling agency.
The reason: after passing the ban, reusable, heavy-duty plastic bags were offered for purchase instead.
“Designed to withstand dozens of uses, and technically recyclable, many retailers treated them as exempt from the ban,” the article said. “But because they didn’t look much different from the flimsy bags they replaced, lots of people didn’t actually reuse them. And though they came emblazoned with a recycling symbol, it turned out that few, if any, actually were recycled.”
A new bill seeks to ban all plastic bags offered at Californian checkout lines, including the heavy-duty kind.
If Abington decides to move forward, it will join Upper Moreland Township (passed in July 2023), and Cheltenham Township, which passed their ban in April.
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