The Ohio Senate took yet another courageous stand Wednesday when it passed a bill which would forbid municipalities from banning or imposing special fees on plastic bags and other so-called auxiliary containers for one year.
House Bill 242 will now return to the Ohio House, from whence it sprang. It was there conceived by legislators who are “bought and paid for” by manufacturers, the Ohio retail lobby and the state’s chamber of commerce. Though initially designed as a permanent ban, cooler heads in the Ohio Senate dialed the legislation back to a one-year moratorium.
State Sen. Matt Dolan, a Republican from Chagrin Falls, told cleveland.com that he would’ve voted NO on a permanent ban, but that a temporary version would provide “consistency and stability” during the coronavirus.
State Sen. Cecil Thomas, a Democrat from Cincinnati, told cleveland.com, “Ohio needs to take the lead and find a way to get citizens, corporations and governments to reduce the amount of plastic we sell and use.” He also said that bags kill wildlife and are receptacles that can catch rainwater and breed mosquitos.
Consistency and stability are things that legislators love to provide for businesses in Ohio. An earlier version of HB242 was intended, its sponsor told our sister paper The Cleveland Scene, to reduce the cost and complexity of regulations for businesses in the state. (That sponsor, George Lang, represents a district where a plastic bag manufacturer is located. Go figure.)
Locally, Cincinnati City Council member Chris Seelbach proposed legislation in March that would bar grocery stores and restaurants from issuing single-use plastic bags starting in 2021. And Cincinnati-based grocery giant Kroger announced last year that it will phase out single-use plastic bags by 2025.
Plastic manufacturers are of course overjoyed to trumpet the potential health risks of reusable bags, and are no doubt delighted that plastic bag bans have been lifted elsewhere, given the unknown nature of COVID-19’s spread.
In Ohio, the legislation is merely the latest in a recurring series for the general assembly. The state body concerns itself foremost with meaningless bills to rile up their gerrymandered districts and bills like the current ban on plastic bag bans, which preempt cities from governing themselves at the behest of business interests.
This article appears in May 6 – Jun 14, 2020.
