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CARLSBAD, N. M. — The horror and discomfort in the New Mexico landscape is prompting government officials across the state to consider conceivable single-use plastic bans in some communities and the state as a whole.
The city of Carlsbad discussed a potential ban in 2019. Attempts ended in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the consultation is making a comeback.
Carlsbad City Councilmember Mary Garwood and Terry Gregston, an environmental policy specialist and hazardous materials program manager for the Carlsbad Bureau of Land Management (BLM), visited three illegal dumps near city limits and plastic bags were widespread.
Garwood, former director of the cleanup organization Keep Carlsbad Beautiful, estimated that the city of Carlsbad has spent more than $50,000 to clean up trash in and around the community.
He said single-use plastic bag waste along roads, parks and residential spaces has gotten worse since the city first thought about banning plastic bags just five years ago. Elected to the Carlsbad City Council in 2023, she said the time seemed right. It’s time to oppose a conceivable ban.
“We’re going to win the war on plastic unless we stop it ourselves,” Garwood said.
To that end, Carlsbad can look west to Las Cruces, where a ban on single-use plastic bags has been in place for the past two years. Shoppers bring their own reusable bags to grocery stores. If they buy them, they can pay 10 cents for a paper bag.
According to the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental organization founded in Tucson, Arizona, Americans use an average of 36. 5 plastic bags per user per year, and five trillion plastic bags are used annually worldwide.
“Illegal dumping of plastic bags,” Gregston said.
He said plastic bags are in the states, federal and land.
“We haven’t been proactive about cleanup,” Garwood said.
He added that if a ban passes, Carlsbad could save thousands of dollars a year in cleanup costs and make Carlsbad’s public spaces and roadways “aesthetically friendly. “
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State Senator Jeff Steinborn, D-Las Cruces, has petitioned the 2023 New Mexico Legislature for Senate Bill (SB) 243, titled the Plastic Waste Reduction Act. The bill was reviewed but did not go to the Senate Committee on Taxation and Business. and Transportation in the final days of the 2023 session.
Despite the setback, Steinborn said the law is working well. SB 243 won widely among environmental teams across the state, adding the New Mexico Recycling Coalition (NMRC).
The organization’s executive director, Sarah Pierpont, said its supporters knew it could be tricky to get the law passed in a brief consultation and that after its failure, the NMRC made the decision to refocus its efforts on school campaigns aimed at raising awareness among those operating in counterfeit waste treatment operations.
According to her, part of the educational process is talking to other people about the circular economy. The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) The U. S. Department of Agriculture describes the circular economy as keeping fabrics and products flowing for as long as possible.
The plastics problem is widespread, according to a 2020 national waste study conducted by Keep America Beautiful (KAB), a nonprofit networking organization. It was estimated that about 350 million plastic bags littered roads and waterways in the United States during the study period. According to the study, the vast majority, nearly 95 percent of plastic bags, were plastic bags from retail stores.
“They don’t break down in the environment,” Pierpont said.
The University of Colorado at the Boulder Environmental Center notes that plastics refining emits an additional 148 to 213 million tons of greenhouse gases annually.
“Landfills, where single-use plastics are sent, account for more than 15% of methane emissions. Eliminating more plastics in landfills leads to an increase in landfill length and those emissions,” according to the school’s environmental center.
Steinborn said the potential state-level ban could be reinstated in the 2025 legislative session.
“It’s a public issue,” he said.
The plastic bag ban in Las Cruces went into effect on January 1, 2022.
Lisa Larocque, the city’s sustainability manager, said the council has called for action regarding plastic bags because of considerations ranging from clutter to the effects of plastic microbeads on health, animal protection and stewardship.
Larocque said retail outlets can’t hand out plastic bags at the time of purchase and will have to charge 10 cents for each paper bag ordered through a customer. He said stores keep five cents for buying and managing paper bags and send the rest to the city for an environmental tax, which is used for school and marketing purposes and for the distribution of reusable bags.
“The city receives about $45,000 a quarter, about 70% of which comes from the big food chains,” Larocque says.
He said Walmart in Las Cruces contributes about two-thirds of the fees collected in the city.
Larocque said retail institutions in Las Cruces don’t charge fees to other people who receive public assistance.
Steinborn, the state senator who is also from Las Cruces, said he has not heard any court cases from citizens or stores since the ban was implemented.
“I bring a reusable bag to the store. It’s a way to shop. It’s more environmentally friendly,” he says.
Read more: A Look at Paper Bag Sales and Profits in the Second Quarter of Las Cruces’ Plastic Bag Ban
The ban on single-use plastic bags has been championed by the state legislator and the president of the Las Cruces Green Chamber of Commerce.
“We’ve noticed that the number of plastic bags flying around our network (decreases) and (slitters) in our beautiful city. Plus, it costs businesses less and is helping to inspire the use of reusable bags only in grocery shopping, but also in other commerce spaces,” said state Sen. Carrie Hamblen, D-Las Cruces.
In addition to Las Cruces, single-use plastic is banned in Santa Fe, Silver City, Taos and Bernalillo County.
Hamblen said Las Cruces can serve as an example for other New Mexico communities and counties.
“Each and every network can build on the positive effects we’re seeing in Las Cruces and feel motivated to implement their own plastic bag ban,” he said.
Read more: Ban the Stock Exchange? Carlsbad Considers Banning Plastic Bags in Response to Waste Issues
Larocque cautioned that communities contemplating their own ban should have enough reusable bags to distribute at first.
“Despite the intense marketing, other people were under the impression that we were selling paper bags instead of plastic. We had a hard time deciding whether to ask other people to go bagless or use a more expensive bag, but we decided against it,” she said. .
Steinborn said the contribution of local restaurants and the granting of exemptions for single-use plastic bags for taking raw food and takeout to restaurants and for picking up clothes from dry cleaners deserve to be included in any discussion municipalities or counties have when dealing with the public. retail. . business and industry.
Garwood said single-use plastic bags from restaurants or food trucks in Carlsbad would be exempt from any ban in Carlsbad, as would ice bags and produce bags.
“The order is for the single-use plastic bag that we all get when we go grocery shopping or prevent at the convenience store. The use of reusable cloth bags will be encouraged,” he said.
Garwood said the network’s involvement would be needed if Carlsbad residents need to see a ban within city limits.
Read more: Eddy County and City of Carlsbad Tackle Illegal Waste Problem
“It will be the loudest voice that will be heard when the time comes for when and how it will take a stand. The citizens of Carlsbad will want to be concerned by attending any public meeting that is likely to take a stand and communicating with their councilmembers about it. ” she said.
Garwood said the proposed ordinance aims to maintain cleanliness.
“The feeling of a cleaner city will be visible and felt by all of us,” he said.
Larocque said communities can take steps to respect the environment until the state or individual communities ban plastic bags.
“I would inspire the promotion of reuse or composability as much as possible, such as reusable bags, water bottle filling stations, transient composting garages that involve them. We use and dispose of too many fabrics that are destructive to our fitness and the environment. ,” she says.
Mike Smith can be reached at 575-628-5546 or by email at MSmith@currentargus. com or @ArgusMichae on X, formerly as Twitter.
This article originally appeared in Carlsbad Current-Argus: New Mexico Communities Banning Plastic Bags to Reduce Waste.
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