HOMER, Alaska (AP) - Homer officials will ask voters next year if they want to reinstate a ban on certain single-use plastic bags.
The Homer City Council approved a measure this week to place an ordinance on the October 2019 ballot, asking voters if they want the city to prohibit retailers from providing customers with thin plastic bags, the Homer News reported Thursday.
The council in 2012 passed a plastic bag ban, but it was later repealed through a ballot initiative.
Council member Caroline Venuti introduced a new ordinance banning plastic bags last month. The council decided it would be better to have voters weigh in on the measure.
“I think it’s important that it actually goes back to the voters,” council member Shelly Erickson said. “The feedback I’ve gotten from many people is they’ve spoken on this. I think that they need to be given the opportunity to speak on it again.”
The measure going to the ballot would allow stores to use thicker bags, and the ban would not apply to small bags like what’s used for produce at grocery stores.
Homer would be the second city on the Kenai Peninsula with a bag ban if the measure is approved. Soldotna’s measure banning disposable shopping bags goes into effect next month.
Other Alaska cities with similar plastic bag bans include Anchorage, where all soft plastic bags are prohibited, and Wasilla, which bans thin single-use bags.
“Getting rid of plastic bags will not be the solution, but it is the beginning,” Henry Reiske, an educator on recycling and marine debris at the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies, told the council.
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Information from: The Homer (Alaska) News, http://www.homernews.com
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