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Las Cruces City Council Moves Closer To Enacting Plastic Bag Ban

Stores in Las Cruces may soon be switching to a paper bagging system, as part of a proposed city effort to limit single-use plastics. While an official ordinance has yet to be drafted, City Sustainability Officer Lisa LaRocque reviewed a proposed plan with the Las Cruces City Council during a work session.

She outlined the reasons single-use plastic bags can be harmful, saying they are often only in use for an average of 12 minutes.

“Litter and plastics buried in the landfill can persist there for hundreds of years, and we have this throwaway mentality that needs to be stopped,” LaRocque said. “On average, we use 1,500 single plastic-use plastic bags a year, and on average we use them for only 12 minutes. So, it is a very excessive use of a product that has such a long shelf life.”

The proposed plan would ban single-use plastic bags in department, grocery and other stores but would make exceptions for food banks, restaurants and take-out establishments as well as bags for bulk items like produce and meat. To help offset the cost of paper bags, LaRocque proposed a 10-cent fee for each bag used.

“50% of the bag fee will be kept by the retailers to offset the added cost of paper bags, and to assist with administrative fees,” LaRocque said. “The remaining 50% we suggest should be donated to a local nonprofit chosen by the retailer.”

Mayor Ken Miyagishima says he would support the plan if restaurants were not included in the plastic ban, though indicated he would be open to revaluating the ordinance at the one-year mark.  

“It’s an additional cost right now when restaurants don’t need it,” Miyagishima said. “You know, paper bags are expensive. That’s why I said let’s revisit in a year. But if we put it in there, it’s going to have to be done. What was presented, I like.”

Councilor Johana Bencomo says that while she is open to a phased-in approach, her goal is to ultimately see the plastic ban expanded to include restaurants.

“The intention of this ordinance is not to place a burden on anybody,” Bencomo said. “The intention of this ordinance is to ensure our landfills don't look like they currently do, our deserts don’t look like they currently do…it’s a much broader intent.”

But researchers, like University of Sydney Economist Rebecca Taylor, say that bans on plastic bags have historically led to an increase in other plastic purchases.  She told NPR in 2019 that 4-gallon trash bag purchases had an increase in sales of approximately 120% in the California regions studied after a ban was put in place. The National Resources Defense Council says that even with the spike in garbage bag sales—less plastic was used in the studied regions overall.

The NRDC stresses that the key to a good plastic bag ban is finding solutions to avoid a surge in paper bag use, citing a need for measures like paper bag fees.

Statewide bans have become increasingly common across the United States. Eight states, including California, Oregon, New York and Hawaii have all enacted legislation banning plastic bags.  

The city of Albuquerque has also implemented a ban on plastic bags, electing to exempt restaurants from the policy. Due to the pandemic, the ban was temporarily suspended in the spring of 2020.

Councilor Gabe Vasquez says that the city of Las Cruces is lagging behind the rest of the state in enacting a plastic bag ban. He stresses a city-wide campaign to promote reusable bags will be key in educating community members.

“I think now is an opportune time to talk about banning plastic bags,” Vasquez said.  “I know you guys have all seen what I-10 and I-25 and literally almost every major street looks like in Las Cruces right now, completely littered with plastic, every single corner of our city right now.”

Vasquez says that a plastic bag ban should simply be a jumping-off point for the city and that a ban on other single-use plastics should be explored in the future.

“I would love to also have an ordinance on Styrofoam and other single-use reusables, or single-use plastics, on like straws and other types of things like that here,” Vasquez said. “I think this is a start and I think it's part of the culture shift that it's going to take for us to get to where we want to get as a community and as a planet.”

If passed, the proposed ban is currently set to go into effect in early 2022.

Madison Staten was a Multimedia Reporter for KRWG Public Media from 2020-2022.