Plastics industry goes after bag bans during pandemic

A person carrying plastic bags | AP Photo — A person carrying plastic bags. | AP Photo

NEW YORK — Plastic bag proponents see an opportunity in the pandemic that’s turning nearly every American into a hand sanitizer-guzzling germaphobe.

POLITICO obtained a copy of a letter that the Plastics Industry Association sent to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services last week requesting a public statement from the department endorsing the idea that single-use plastics are the safest choice amid the pandemic.

“We ask that the department speak out against bans on these products as a public safety risk and help stop the rush to ban these products by environmentalists and elected officials that puts consumers and workers at risk,” the industry group wrote.

In New York, New Jersey and other states, the plastics industry and some Republican lawmakers are calling for rollbacks or easing of prohibitions on single-use plastic bags, arguing that often-unwashed reusable bags are hotbeds for the coronavirus.

“The most important thing is to not put the front-end grocery store workers in any unnecessary risk,” said Matt Seaholm, executive director of the American Recyclable Plastic Bag Alliance, which represents the plastic bag industry and is an independent arm of the Plastics Industry Association. “Grocery stores are one of the few places that are going to remain open, and there’s no need to force some sort of a policy of a bag ban when there are much more important things to deal with.”

Environmental advocates and supporters of plastic bans are assailing the campaigns to weaken the hard-fought measures.

“It’s the industry version of toilet paper hoarders,” said John Hocevar, Greenpeace USA’s oceans campaign director. “This kind of approach is, at the heart of it, cynical, selfish and opportunistic at a time when most people are thinking about how we can work together to get through this.”

Eight states ban single-use plastic bags, but hundreds of municipalities around the country have adopted measures to do so. Now some jurisdictions are rethinking those bans, at least for the foreseeable future.

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu prohibited shoppers from bringing reusable bags to stores and ordered stores to make new paper or plastic bags available. Maine delayed a bag ban that was scheduled for April 22.

The Massachusetts Food Association also called for temporary suspensions of local plastic bag bans. Municipalities from coast to coast have been following suit or considering it.

A statewide ban went into effect in New York on March 1, but enforcement was delayed and then further delayed to May 15 as courts effectively closed down earlier this month. Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos rejected a push by New York Senate Minority Leader John Flanagan to suspend the ban because of the pandemic.

“DEC continues to encourage New Yorkers to transition to reusable bags whenever and wherever they shop and to use common-sense precautions to keep their reusable bags clean,” department spokesperson Erica Ringewald said in a statement. “New York’s ban on single-use plastic bags went into effect as planned on March 1. Retailers across the state are complying.”

Vendors at GrowNYC’s Greenmarket were told by management that the ban on plastic bags was delayed and were advised not to touch reusable bags as part of measures linked to limiting the spread of Covid-19.

Some large grocery stores are bringing back plastic in New York amid a supply crunch for paper and a surge in shoppers, including Price Chopper/Market 32 stores, according to the Watertown Daily Times.

There is research showing that reusable bags can carry viruses. A 2010 study from Loma Linda University and the University of Arizona found bacteria levels on reusable bags were significant enough to cause health problems. That study was partly funded by the American Chemistry Council.

Ryan Sinclair, an associate professor at Loma Linda University, was a co-author of that study and also the lead author of additional research cited by those calling for a rollback of plastic bag bans.

Sinclair’s research involved spraying bags with a virus simulator and then swabbing surfaces to see where it ended up. Most of the material was found on the hands of grocery store clerks, the checkout counter and on shopping cart handles.

Sinclair told POLITICO in an interview that in normal times, he’s supportive of plastic bans and simple safety precautions for reusable bag use — specifically, sanitizing the bags, washing hands and not placing bags on conveyor belts or handing them to clerks.

“During this time when you just can’t really count on everybody to have those good behaviors, I would say just give them the disposable bag. That also protects the grocery store clerks,” Sinclair said. “The virus is really ‘sticky’ … and even more difficult to disinfect than other viruses.”

The virus that causes Covid-19 can be detected on plastic surfaces for up to 72 hours, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine last week.

“Anything you bring into a public place nowadays … that can transmit the virus,” Sinclair said. “It could be your purse, it could be other items you move around and touch surfaces.”

Jennifer Coffey, executive director of the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions, argued that the studies are extremely limited and do not apply to reusable bags or real-world conditions.

“Using the coronavirus, a worldwide pandemic, to push pro-plastic pollution is fear-mongering and it’s unconscionable,” she said. “I think it’s really irresponsible to pretend to have science that doesn’t exist at this moment.”

In New Jersey, where the state Legislature has yet to pass a bill banning single-use plastic bags, 54 municipalities and one county have passed ordinances limiting their use.

When Stafford Township declared a state of emergency in response to the coronavirus, it also lifted its restrictions on plastic bags, which it had enacted in 2018. The Township of Parsippany-Troy Hills and Borough of Atlantic Highlands also suspended enforcement of their plastic bag bans.

New Jersey Assemblyman John DiMaio (R-Warren) released a statement Tuesday urging food stores to temporarily ban the use of reusable bags, and fellow Assemblyman Harold Wirths (R-Sussex) issued a statement calling the state’s proposed bill “reckless.”

Linda Doherty, president of the New Jersey Food Council, sent a letter dated March 19 to 32 municipalities that have these ordinances asking them suspend the measures for the duration of the public health emergency and for 30 days after, in order to allow retailers to “respond to the increased food supply demands and restock compliant bags appropriately.”

Her letter noted that Gov. Phil Murphy’s executive orders implementing a state of emergency and social distancing measures said that no municipality should enforce any regulation that might conflict or interfere with the orders.

Mayor Gary Engelstad of Bradley Beach received Doherty’s letter via email last week.

“I’m extremely sensitive to any additional hardships that businesses that are remaining open [face],” he told POLITICO, adding that he reached out to a few local business owners, all of whom said they were doing fine regarding bags. “If the governor says do it, I’d do it, but the motivation is not coming from the governor’s office now. It’s coming from a lobbying organization.”

While Coffey of ANJEC said she uses her reusable bags when she’s shopping and disinfects them with bleach spray when she comes home, Doherty said that store employees can’t guarantee that all customers will clean their reusable bags effectively after each use, a concern that Seaholm echoed.

Supporters of the measure to limit plastics hope that no matter what happens during the public health emergency, consumers and businesses will continue to shift away from single-use items.

“It’s important to keep in mind that plastic has significant effects on human health at every stage of production all the way through the end of life,” Greenpeace’s Hocevar said. “We’ve put so much plastic into the environment that at this point it’s in the food we eat, water we drink and air we breathe.”