City Council voted against the plastic bag ban the Committee on the Environment passed last week. According to Philly.com, Councilman Frank 
DiCicco’s bill was rejected by Council this morning in a 6-10 vote.
Word is that protesters such as ShopRite and the plastics industry lobbied against the bill, causing its demise. Opponents to the bill claimed that banning plastic bags would force many stores to use paper, which “has an even greater environmental impact.” (this is debatable, but the eco-friendliest option is to BYO(re-usable)B.)
Mayor Nutter better get cracking on this if he wants Philadelphia to be an environmental pioneer – Other cities are ahead of us with similar bans.
Ironically, today is also Mark Alan’s Hughes last day as Director of Sustainability.
Posted by Julie
Related posts:
That is very disappointing. Hopefully in the near future they will readdress this issue.
I am so upset about this. I really hope citizens will unite to fight this.
So frustrating! Here’s an update: Philly.com updated their article from yesterday. My favorite quote “The city’s new Greenworks plan has endorsed measures to limit plastic-bag use. When Mayor Nutter introduced the plan earlier this year, he chanted to an audience at the Franklin Institute: “No more plastic bags!”
http://www.philly.com/philly/living/green/20090619_Philadelphia_Council_rejects_plastic-bag_ban.html
Kind of ironical that the Greenworks plan is emphasizing limit on plastic bags (which i assumed but didn’t read thoroughly yesterday) and we can’t even pass one measure? Hope the other initiatives pass easier!
Hmmm, nice to know you can get away with anything as long as you have lobbyists.