Georgia Senate Says Cities Shouldn’t Be Allowed To Ban Plastic Grocery Bags

Gerald Grady stands outside his car at the Ansley Mall shopping center in Midtown. He says the government shouldn’t be able to tell stores they can’t use plastic bags.

“I think it should be done on a local store level whether or not that should be banned or not,” Grady says. 

And when Grady shops, he prefers plastic over paper.

“Honestly, I think the bags are very helpful in carrying groceries to your home,” he says. “I’ve always liked the plastic bags.”

Just across the parking lot, Rees Cramer says cities and counties should do away with plastic bags. He likes to bring along reusable cloth bags when he shops.

“It would really help our environment a lot to not have massive amount of plastic shopping bags used like that,” Cramer says. 

And here’s how Cramer reacted when he heard about a Senate bill that would take away the right of local governments to ban plastic bags. It would put the decision in the hands of the state legislature instead.

“That’s just one more case of our state legislature focusing on pointless issues while neglecting the major business of the state,” Cramer says. 

But Sen. Tyler Harper, R-Ocilla, says he doesn’t want Georgia to become like California, which has nearly 200 bag and container laws. The California state legislature approved a statewide ban. But now the ban is on hold pending a vote next year by residents.

“We have 159 counties, we have 536 cities, and as you can imagine if each of these individual localities had a regulation in regards to this particular issue, we would have what would be coined as regulatory mayhem for our businesses,” Harper says.

But the effort comes as Tybee Island, which sits along Georgia’s coast, considers a ban. The city wants to protect marine life, particularly sea turtles. Environmentalists say those turtles can mistake plastic bags for jelly fish, and if they eat them they can die.

Sen. Elena Parent, D-Atlanta, argued the bill takes away local control.

“I’m just not sure what the states overriding interest is in protecting plastic bags and telling Tybee Island it cannot protect sea turtles if it wants to,” Parent says.

Senators ended up approving the bill 32 to 19. It now goes to the House.