Iowa City Council Balks at Plastic Bag Ban

After hearing from city staff, the Iowa City City Council at a Tuesday worksession largely dismissed the notion of instituting a ban on plastic bags in Iowa City, instead encouraging the use of more recycling options.

The discussion came after a push in the community, such as a rally hosted by the loca 100Grannies.org group, to ask the city to ban the use of the bags, which are troublesome since they easily blow about as litter and are designed not to biodegrade quickly.

Council member Susan Mims said originally she was in favor of banning the bags, but changed her mind after learning more about the issue.

"On the one hand I'd love to see the ban," Mims said. "(but) I believe it's more complicated than I initially thought."

Jennifer Jordan, Iowa City Recycling Coordinator for the city said these complications included what types of plastic bags the city would like to ban, and the fact that banning them if it wasn't done on a regional level would put Iowa City businesses at a competitive advantage.

Jordan said her preferred method would be to encourage the use of reusable canvas bags and to educate the public about plastic bag recycling options, available now at many grocery stores and Iowa City recycling locations.

"On the national level there's been a big increase on the amount of plastic bags that have been recycled," Jordan said.

Mayor Matt Hayek agreed that Iowa City shouldn't be put its businesses at a competitive disadvantage with such a ban, but encouraged Jordan to increase public awareness of the issue.

"I think it's important to look at the things that we are doing on this issue," Hayek said.

Council member Rick Dobyns asked if the Iowa City Landfill asked if plastic bags would be dealt with if the city adds the trash to ethanol processing center at its landfill as has been discussed in the past. Public works director Rick Fosse answered affirmatively, saying that plastic bags are one of the things the company looks for to convert into energy straight from the garbage load.

Fosse said the city staff is still looking at the possibility of this processing center and will present more to the council soon.