There’s a move afoot in the North Carolina General Assembly to repeal a plastic bag ban along the Outer Banks. More than 125 municipalities in the U.S. have adopted bag bans, but several states are now reversing that trend.
House Bill 271 was filed last week, so it’s just beginning the long road to becoming law. It passed its first reading in the House and will go through the committee process in that chamber, to the floor for a vote and over to the Senate for the same process.
The bill says a plastic bag ban puts a financial burden on businesses – which are expending substantial capital to comply with a ban during a difficult economy when the capital could have been used to expand. The ban, according to the bill, impacts North Carolina businesses large and small, throughout the state.
Meg Young is a member of the Carolina Beach Plastic Bag Ad Hoc Committee. She says this is a local issue, and should be handled that way.
“Removing a municipality or local communities’ ability to best address those problems in the way they see fit, that works for their community, is what I would say is the biggest concern.”
Repeated efforts to reach bill sponsors were unsuccessful.
More than 125 other municipalities in the U.S. have adopted bag bans, but several states are now reversing that trend - including Michigan, Idaho, Arizona and Missouri. All have banned... banning plastic bags.
At present, there are no plastic bag bans in the Cape Fear region, and New Hanover County officials say there are none in the works. In the past, both Wrightsville Beach and Carolina Beach have passed resolutions promising to support any efforts by the county to do away with plastic bags.