The political wonks that crafted Illinois Senate Bill 3442 did something rather remarkable: They wrote a bill about plastic bags that appealed to the plastic industry and promoted recycling at the same time. The measure passed both chambers of the legislature in Illinois in a bipartisan manner and is awaiting Gov. Pat Quinn's signature.
So how did they do it? With a bag ban ban, of course.
The bill encourages recycling of plastic bags, forcing bag manufacturers to register with the state and increase recycling in the state by ensuring residents live close to plastic bag recycling drop-off facilities. That generally wouldn't gain the support of the industry (or Republicans for that matter). But the bill also institutes a ban on plastic bag bans and fees.
(The bill exempts Chicago from the ban. They can ban plastic bags to their heart's content.)
Plastic bag bans (or 5-cent or 10-cent fees/taxes) are currently the darling of the environmental movement. The bans are spreading quickly; 80 communities in the United States now have a measure in place, including Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco and Austin. The California Senate is considering a bill that would extend the ban across the entire state. The Assembly previously approved the measure.
The plastic bag industry wants to halt the spread of bag bans, and apparently Illinois has become ground zero to the plastic bag ban fight, so we've ended up with a bag ban ban.
Not everyone is excited about the ban on bans, of course. Max Muller of Environmental Illinois told me the bill was a "fraud."
"They dolled it up as a statewide recycling bill. It's a bit of a lie, I think," he said.
And then there's 13-year-old Abby Goldberg. She was minding her own business, attempting to get a plastic bag ban passed in her hometown, when the ban on plastic bag bans started gaining momentum. She turned her attention to the bill, collected more than 150,000 signatures on an online petition and presented them to Gov. Quinn.
The governor hasn't decided to sign the bill or not.
One of the aspects of the bill that likely makes it attractive to some folks on the left (who wouldn't normally go for such nonsense as bans on plastic bag bans) is that the law sunsets, and rather quickly too. The bill is essentially an experiment: Let's see if the plastic bag industry can actually impact recycling rates of plastic bags. If the industry fails, those on the left can scream in 2017 that the bill was ineffective and plastic bags should be banned.
But if it's successful, watch out, because a ban on plastic bag bans might be spreading to a state near you.
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