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ATTACHMENT A Planning & Development Building & Permit Services City of Eugene th 99 West 10 Avenue Eugene, Oregon 97401 (541) 682-5086 (541) 682-5593 FAX www.eugene-or.gov Staff Report To: Sarah Medary, PDD Executive Director From: Ethan Nelson, Waste Prevention and Green Building Manager Date: February 24, 2012 Re: Council Work Session on Plastic Bag Bans Overview This staff report responds to the questions outlined in Councilor Zelenka’ s Work Session Poll on the following question, “Should the City promote the use of reusable bags by prohibiting the use of single-use plastic bags by retail establishments?” The specific questions raised in the poll were: 1. What did the City of Portland enact? 2. What did the Legislature try to enact? 3. What are the environmental benefits? 4. How does this impact our Council goal of reducing solid waste? 5. What are the economic costs & benefits for Eugene and Oregon? 6. What are the social equity implications? Background The City of Eugene regulates licensed garbage and recycling hauling activities within the city limits. These activities are guided by Oregon Revised Statues as well as the Eugene City Code. In particular, ORS 459a outlines the “Opportunity to Recycle” for all Oregonians and sets garbage diversion rates that county’s should strive for. The Lane County goal is to achieve 54% diversion on an annual basis by 2009. This level was reached for the first time in 2010 (57.4%). Outside of this statewide policy, waste reduction and diversion is included as an action item within Eugene’s Climate and Energy Action Plan. Eugene’s short history with plastic bag recycling started in 2007 when the City of Eugene received funding from the American Plastics Council to purchase recycling bins for area retailers. The program provided an option for local businesses to support recycling through a “take-back” approach. Roughly 16 business over multiple locations and a range of business sizes participated in the program. The program has since been reduced due to the low recycling market value of the material being collected and the discontinuation city staff collecting and transporting the material to Ecosort, which was not feasible for the long term. At roughly the same time in 2007, Eugene’s largest garbage hauler, Sanipac, started accepting plastic bags commingled in the curbside recycling for commercial and residential accounts. Unfortunately, this practice resulted in contamination of the recycling stream. The bags would jam the gears in the sorting machines at the Material Recovery Facilities (MRF’s) in Portland, causing the processing lines to shut 1 | Page