On Tuesday, March 15, Wisconsin legislators approved a bill preventing the state’s municipalities and communities from enacting any sort of fee, ban, or regulation on “auxiliary containers”—plastic bags, bottles, and other packaging. Although no municipalities in Wisconsin currently regulate plastic bags or similar containers, this bill—if passed by Governor Walker—would prevent even the possibility of such regulation in the future. Clearly, municipalities should retain their rights to make their own decisions regarding this issue, and Dane County, the City of Milwaukee, and the City of Madison want to retain these rights, as demonstrated by their lobbying against the bill.

Senator Roger Roth and Bill Smith (of the National Federation of Independent Business) claim that regulating plastic bags would be “burdensome” and lead to “a dramatic increase in costs” for businesses (citing research conducted by the plastic bag industry itself), but research conducted in cities that have enacted plastic bag regulations prove otherwise. For example, retailers in San Jose and San Francisco—two California cities with regulations—have incurred “‘no sustained negative [economic] impact.’”

One hundred billion plastic bags are used every year in the United States, while only 12 percent are recycled--meaning that the remaining 88 billion bags end up in landfills or strewn throughout the environment. Limiting the distribution and use of plastic bags could lead to a reduction in waste and litter, but such limits or regulations could only be realized if Wisconsin municipalities retain the right to pursue them.

Repealing Wisconsin’s “ban-the ban” legislation would not guarantee that plastic bag bans would be enacted statewide, but it would return to state citizens their rights to actively participate in democracy and have a say in the decisions that affect them.

For democracy, for the environment, for the power we hold as individuals and communities, please ask our legislators to let us make our own decisions about this issue.