Single-use plastic bags will be banned at large retail stores in Elgin starting in June 2027 under an ordinance approved Wednesday night by the Elgin City Council.
The new rule, recommended by the city’s Sustainability Commission, will affect 42 businesses in Elgin, including Jewel, Hobby Lobby, Target, Walmart, Meijer, Menards, Blain’s Farm and Fleet, and Burlington.
Businesses with 12 or less locations or 250 or less full-time employees are exempt as are restaurants, gas station convenience stores and small retail mercantile establishments. It also does not apply to people receiving government assistance through progams like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Stores affected by the change can offer shoppers the option of buying paper bags for 10 cents each if they do not bring a reusable bag for their purchases, the ordinance says.
“I’m in favor of moving forward on this. We’ve been discussing this for a long time,” Councilwoman Tish Powell said at the meeting. While not a perfect ordinance because it only affects larger stores, she said, “I look at this as a starting point.”
The vote was not unanimous; council members Rose Martinez and Steve Thoren voted against it. It will not be a done deal until the council votes on the final measure at its next meeting.
Not all residents were in favor of the change. Of the 2,185 people who responded to a city survey on the issue, 57% opposed the ordinance, 38% supported it and 5% wanted information.
Business owners said they were worried about the paper bag cost hurting customers already facing rising prices, the potential loss of customers to stores where there is no bag ban, and increased costs related to buying paper bags.
Roy Coombes, manager of the Walmart store on South Randall Road, said he worked in a California town that passed a single-use bag ban 15 years ago. There were customers who would rather drive to another community to shop than deal with the bag situation at his store.
Even when more communities passed a ban, those customers never came back, Coombes said.
“It changed their shopping habits completely,” he said.
A statewide ban would be better because then retailers would be on a level playing field, Coombes said. By the state taking action, “it’s not a choice for the consumer,” he said.
Blain’s Farm & Fleet Store Manager Keith Rochford said the company is a family-owned business that’s been around for 70 years. His concern is the ban will be confusing to customers because they won’t be able to get a plastic bag at the store but will get one if they order items online.
Rochford said he understands the damage plastic bags can cause to the environment, but the city’s ban affects only certain businesses rather than all.
“It doesn’t matter whether it’s a plastic bag from a big box store or a small restaurant or a gas station. It’s still a plastic bag,” he said. “If we are going to have this, we need to have a level playing field and get rid of it completely, not just single out box stores.”
Wednesday’s meeting also brought out supporters of a ban.
“This is a single-use plastic bag,” said Vivienne Bailey, holding up a white plastic bag. “Everybody recognizes these, right? This weighs from five to eight grams, which is approximately one quarter of an ounce. It costs one cent to manufacture. It costs 17 cents to recycle.”
“This bag lives from 20 to 1,000 years. Please pass the single-use plastic bag ordinance,” Bailey said.
Gary Swick, who helps coordinate cleanups along the Fox River, says plastic bags are among the trash they haul out of the water and on the river banks.
“Plastics are a complicated, multilevel environmental problem. Plastics were developed and used because they are valuable properties, but we must weigh the benefits with the risks,” Swick said.
“Plastics in various forms are now legacy contamination in our Fox River and in your bloodstream. Doing what we can do to reduce plastics when practical is essential action. You have the opportunity to make a statement about our local culture.”
Martinez said her negative vote was because 57% of people who took the survey opposed the idea.
That also played a role in Thoren’s decision.
“I know many of my co-council valued the input by the surveys and have said in the past that’s how they want to get answers, but in this case, I guess it doesn’t matter to them,” he said. “I know there is an environmental issue here, but I feel the impact is so minimal in our town. I’m just not in favor of it.”
Among the supporters was Councilman John Steffen.
“I’ve been pushing this for a long time. It’s a first step. I think it’s a good one,” he said.
Nationally, more than 330 communities and 12 states have adopted similar policies. Locally, Batavia and Northbrook passed ordinances within the last three years. A study of 33 stores in New Jersey subject to a bag law found a 96% reduction in bags distributed or sold per store per week, equating to more than 90 million fewer bags over an eight-month period, according to city documents.
While Illinois has a ban under consideration, the legislation hasn’t moved out of committee.
Mayor Dave Kaptain supported the ordinance, in part because he has no confidence the state will pass a ban. Elgin has been a leader in taking action on important issues, like police body cameras and banning vaping and cannabis derivatives, he said.
“I think the changes should begin here and should start with consumers in the city of Elgin,” Kaptain said.
Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
