Item 5: Ordinance Suspending Paper Bag Charge

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Dear Mayor and Council- I am writing to ask you to please protect the fee on single use paper bags. I understand it's a hardship (at first) for many low income people. Perhaps those who use a SNAP card (what we used to call food stamps) could be exempt. Years ago, I met a newcomer from Germany, who had come to the U.S. equipped with an easy -to -use woven net bag to carry home his groceries in. He was amazed to find that Americans didn't carry bags to the store, that we expected everything we bought to be put in a bag for us. "What do you do with all those bags ?" he asked. "We just throw them away," I said. Let's not do that any more. Jean Murphy 585 West 26th Eugene 97405 From: John Winquist johnwinquist @mail.com Sent: Wednesday, June 05, 2013 8:06 PM To: *Eugene Mayor, City Council, and City Manager Subject: Please protect the bag fee- Dear Mayor and Council- I am writing to ask you to please protect the fee on single use paper bags, and work to make the policy more fair and equitable by exempting those on food benefits. Thank you for supporting the ban and working to make this policy the best it can be for our community. Sincerely, Pem and John Winquist From: Carol Pratt [ mai Ito: icpratt @efn.org Sent: Wednesday, June 05, 2013 1:00 PM To: *Eugene Mayor, City Council, and City Manager Subject: Please protect the bag fee- Dear Mayor and Council - I have lived a good while in Ireland, since they enacted legislation similar to the new program here. The only plastic bags allowed to be used free are for meat, poultry, fish, and fresh produce. Everything else is either not available or costs 22 cents (euro- cents!). This change was made very quickly about 3 years ago, and it has not caused enough disruption to be a concern. The number of bags littered has fallen to near zero. Most people carry their own cloth bags to use for carrying groceries. We can do the same!