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Salem's bag ban campaign fizzles

Tracy Loew

Statesman Journal

Kelsey White-Davis, preservation intern for Environment Oregon, and Bag Monster, (Alasdair Neilson) hold a press conference Wednesday July 31, 2013. Environment Oregon kicked off a campaign at Salem's Riverfront Park to get the Salem City Council to pass an ordinance banning disposable plastic bags.

Backers of a ban on plastic shopping bags launched a Salem campaign with great fanfare just over a year ago.

But the effort soon fizzled.

"There's not a ton of support in the city council for it," said Rikki Seguin, conservation advocate for Environment Oregon.

The environmental advocacy organization pushed a statewide plastic ban bag in the 2013 legislative session. After that failed, they switched to a city by city approach, Seguin said.

Along with Salem, the organization targeted Ashland, Beaverton, Bend, Lake Oswego and Tigard.

Ashland passed a ban in April. It goes into effect in October.

But efforts have stalled in the other cities, Seguin said.

In Salem, councilwoman Laura Tesler vowed to champion the ban, and 25 local businesses signed on as backers.

Tesler said she asked Environment Oregon to start by going to neighborhood councils to garner local support.

"They kind of fizzled out and never really did that," Tesler said. "I just figured there really wasn't enough community support to take it to council."

The Facebook page for the Salem campaign hasn't been updated since Aug. 2, 2013, the day after the campaign launched.

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The matter has not come before the Salem City Council, other than a separate presentation by students at Stephens Middle School, said Glenn Gross, Salem's community development director.

"They made a nice little presentation, everybody thanked them, and that's the last I heard about the topic," Gross said.

The Bag Monster, representing the how many plastic bags each person is estimated to use each year, was on hand Wednesday for the kick off of Environment Oregon’s campaign to ban the bags’ use.
KOBBI R. BLAIR / Statesman Journal Environment Oregon kicked off a campaign featuring Bag Monster Wednesday July 31, 2013 at Salem's Riverfront Park to get the Salem City Council to pass an ordinance banning disposable plastic bags.

Oregonians use more than a billion single-use plastic bags each year, Environment Oregon says.

Some of those bags find their way into the ocean, killing sea turtles, sea birds and marine mammals that mistake them for food.

Portland became the first city in Oregon to ban single-use plastic bags, in 2011. Corvallis and Eugene approved bag bans in 2012.

tloew@statesmanjournal.com, (503) 399-6779 or follow at Twitter.com/SJWatchdog