Dillons working on phased elimination; 8 states already prohibit
By TIM CARPENTER
Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — The purposeful life span of plastic bags that are a staple of retail stores can be measured in minutes, while these thinnest of load-bearing containers take decades to decompose in landfills.
The familiar store-to-home bags have a knack for finding their way into the environment as litter on the ground or floating in streams, rivers and oceans. When multiplied by about 500 billion each year, these easy-come, easy-go bags become a menace to the planet. Alternatives exist — reusable cotton or non-woven polypropylene satchels, for example — but convincing people at grocery stores, restaurants and convenience stores to make the switch is a tough sell.
Lori Lawrence, of Bag Free Wichita, and Sheila Regehr, of Dillons Food Stores based in Hutchinson, outlined on the Kansas Reflector podcast strategies aimed at taking a bite out of demand and supply of plastic bags.
Lawrence is part of the Wichita City Council’s task force studying potential of an ordinance prohibiting use of plastic bags by businesses starting in 2023. Regehr is on Wichita’s task force but said Dillons, which is part of Kroger Co., has a plan to eliminate use of these bags in its stores by 2025.
“I’ve been an environmentalist for some time and plastic bags are something that cannot be avoided in our city at this point. They are everywhere in the stores, but they’re also everywhere on the streets and in the trees and in our parks,” Lawrence said. “We finally got the single-use plastic bag task force set up with the city of Wichita, and we’ve had a great group of people working on this. We’ve come to a decision on banning bags.”
Task force prefers ban
Lawrence said the city council had jurisdiction over the task force’s recommendation and it would be reasonable to expect opposition from some merchants or business organizations.
Adoption of a citywide ordinance precluding distribution of single-use plastic bags would be accompanied by a public campaign to inform people how best to adapt, she said.
The Kansas Chamber of Commerce’s political agenda for the 2022 Legislature includes a recommendation that legislators preempt local units of government by forbidding city or county bans on plastics commonly used in retail outlets.
“You’ve got 600 cities in Kansas’ 105 counties. Six-hundred cities with 600 different rules on bags or plastic straws or paper straws,” said Alan Cobb, president and chief executive officer of the Kansas Chamber.
Eight states have adopted some sort of constraint on single-use plastic bags starting with California in 2014. Such laws exist in Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Vermont, New York, Oregon and Washington.
Regehr said Kroger Co.’s idea of ending reliance on single-use bags in nearly 3,000 grocery stores nationwide was announced in 2018. The transition has been interrupted by COVID-19 as supply chains were disrupted. The pandemic increased the cost of plastic and paper bags and cut inventory of reusable bags, she said.
Answer: Reusable bags
Regehr said it was important for businesses such as Dillons to participate in deliberations of the task force in Wichita because the retailer perspective had to be represented. She said about three dozen retailers, restaurants or organizations in Wichita have adopted policies ending use of plastic bags.
“I definitely wanted to be involved,” she said. “I’ve helped with some of these discussions in other communities and wanted to make sure that … we could not only keep a close eye on the impact of the environment, but also fellow retailers, our customers. I wanted to be able to provide that voice for both.”
She said Dillons could build on experiences of other Kroger companies such as Seattle-based QFC, which stopped offering those types of bags at 60 locations in Washington and Oregon in 2019.
“On the West Coast, for example, with our QFC division, they were our first division to phase out plastic bags completely. And what we’re seeing is customers adapting to the change and starting to use those reusable bags,” Regehr said.
She said the solution shouldn’t be a return to reliance on paper sacks in stores. Another challenge, she said, was the pandemic increased the number of people choosing home delivery or pickup options. Different types of grocery-hauling containers were tested for convenience and durability. The company settled on a multi-use, multi-purpose plastic bag made of heavier plastic and capable of being used 125 to 150 times.
“When we think about the world that we’ll leave to our children, our grandchildren the opportunity is ahead of us right now to make some of those positive changes,” Regehr said.