Brownsville plastic bag ban seems to be working

Brownsville resident Juan Peña says he has noticed that the city looks a lot cleaner.

Travel around any part of the city and you probably will not see plastic bags clinging to fences or discarded on the roadways.

Peña says West Brownsville especially looks cleaner than it did about 11 months ago. He says the decision by city officials to implement a plastic bag in January was a good thing.

"It looks cleaner than it used to be a long time ago. I think it is working, in some areas, but not all areas," Peña said recently, while standing outside the Walgreen’s Store on Central and Boca Chica boulevards. "I recycle the bags."

In January, the city implemented a plastic bag ban that prohibited retailers from handing out plastic shopping bags to consumers. The only exemption pertains to food safety and retailers may only provide plastic bags to prevent contamination from any cooked, chilled or frozen foods purchased.

The plastic bag ban was spearheaded by Rose Timmer, executive director of the nonprofit organization Healthy Communities, who worked with then Commissioner Edward Camarillo to make the change.

Hong Russell, another Brownsville resident, believes the bag ban was a good idea and does not think the city should rescind it. Russell also said she has noticed the city looking a lot cleaner than it did a year ago.

Thc city implemented the bag ban to clean up the city as well as protect the environment. Officials said the bags were not only polluting the city resacas but were also clogging up storm drains.

But not everyone supports the plastic bag ban. Julie Lopez believes the city should rescind the ban and allow merchants to hand out the plastic bags again.

Lopez thinks the ban is hurting merchants, with customers traveling to cities that have no bag ban. In addition, she believes retailers are losing money because of an increase in shoplifting.

"They take the merchandise and sometimes they go out without paying," said Lopez, while shopping at the H-E-B store on Central and Boca Chica boulevards. "I think it would be better if we would go back to the old way."

Lopez works in the retail business.

Other Texas cities that already have or are considering plastic bag bans include Austin, Laredo and San Antonio.

Public Health Director Art Rodriguez said it appears that the city’s bag ban has been well received by residents and this is evident by how clean the city looks.

"We’ve had a lot of inquiries about the ordinance from other cities and now from within the city, we continue to get compliments from people," Rodriguez said.

The city has collected about $250,000 in fees from plastic bags that were sold at stores where customers chose to purchase the bags rather than use recyclable bags.

The money collected has already been put to use. About two months ago, the city held a Make a Difference event in which residents were paid cash for turning in bulky waste, officials said.

The city is also trying to use some of the money to leverage grants to help offset the cost of maintaining the area along U.S. Expressway 77/83 by keeping it litter free and the grass trimmed. Although the Texas Department of Transportation, or TxDOT, provides such a service, it is only done three times a year, Rodriguez said. The city has received permission from TxDOT to assist with the maintenance along the highway.

Rodriguez said the city plans to bring back the media campaign in the near future reminding residents of the bag ban and to get them to use recyclable bags.

"I think people have realized that it has made a positive difference, but one of the frustrations is at times ‘oh, I forgot my bag, I never remember, I always forget them in the car’," Rodriguez said. "We are trying to see if we can bring back that campaign so people will remember and that retailers will remind them."

Rodriguez said the success of the ordinance is due to the citizens of Brownsville accepting it and putting it into action.

"In many ways they lead the way because when Healthy Communities polled them, they said they would be willing to change and I think it shows there was a lot of truth in that survey because people have adapted," Rodriguez said.