No plastic bags anywhere in Portland? City is considering it
PORTLAND, Ore. – Mayor Sam Adams is pushing to expand the ban on plastic bags and pitched the idea to Portlanders on his Facebook page Wednesday night asking for everyone’s support.
Currently, the city’s plastic bag ban applies to big grocery stores, but Adams says it’s not enough and now wants to add all businesses to the list.
The ban would come in two phases:
First, bigger businesses (bigger than 10,000 square feet like bigger restaurants and retailers) would have to give up the plastic bags in March. Then smaller businesses like food carts would have to retire their plastic bags in October of next year.
Some businesses are on board with the idea and others say they can handle the extra cost, but they don't want to give up the convenience.
"There are some items that have oil (and) customers ask for plastic bags," said Joe Kortvaoui who uses plastic bags at his food cart.
Clint Colbert is voluntarily giving up plastic bags at his food cart but says paper is more expensive.
"I've never had it to this point, so I wouldn't know the exact cost, but I do know it does cost more," he said. "I'm willing to do anything to make things better as long as those amounts don't put me under."
Most of the food carts are already one step ahead of the city and only a couple out of a dozen visited by a KATU News reporter offered plastic bags as an option.
The mayor says with the bigger ban, it'll cut down on the litter the bags create all over the city and cut out problems they cause in recycling plants.
He says a study of the current bag ban shows a big improvement in more Portlanders than ever using reusable bags instead of plastic. So his reasoning is a bigger ban can only be better. He also says an all-inclusive ban will help cut back on the 1.7 million plastic bags used in Oregon every year.
The City Council is set to take a look at the plan next week.
I'm happy that I have cases of plastic bags and take some whenever I'm shopping I'm now giving in to laws a has been idiot mayor put in, I just Charlie Hales get's rid of this dumb ban along with all the other things he put in including those bike boxes.
I guess Sammy is trying to go down in history as the worst mayor in history.. and he's succeeding.
Glad I shop outside Portland where I don't support the Portland business tax.
Isn't it amazing how those in the conservation movement go whichever way the wind blows? It was just a few years ago when they were promoting the use of plastic bags because using paper bags "kills trees". So now, years later, they finally realize that plastic bags don't degrade like paper bags and suddenly there's a crisis. Yup, the patients are running the asylum.
 @Finally Amusingly, plastic bags are produced from a natural gas waste product that is otherwise flared off, so they're actually beneficial. As well, most large stores have recycling bins for the bags. Once again, Sammy's bravely fighting a nonexistent problem - and costing residents more money.
The biggest waste in Portland will be out of office soon enough. Back to the bathrooms and underage lovers for you, Sam. Try to stay off the offenders list.
Good job Sam. I'm glad you're choosing to focus on the REALLY important stuff to base your 'legacy' on... /sarc.
Call me jaded, cynical, clueless... but don't some of you think that Portland has far bigger problems to worry about than plastic bags? (I do).
So when all these "green people" get there way and get plastic bags out of the city, what are they going to use to line there trash cans in there bathroom, or take there lunch into work. I guess we just buy new ones use them one and throw them away. So glad Portland hasn't moved there Ideas to Aurora yet.
how about all the people who take their dogs to the local parks. Nothin like picking up a steamy turd with a reuaseable bag. Glad I dont live in that city
How about doing something that will actually eliminate real pollution and raise revenue for the city? What's that? Instruct the police to enforce the anti-littering law against smokers. Smokers routinely drop their cigarette butts wherever they happen to be standing when they finish. Cigarette butts are toxic. Each time someone drops one, they are polluting the environment and littering. If police would enforce the law, there'd be a lot of money in fines and it would eliminate a dangerous source of pollution.
@NWGuy  Why focus on smokers? Sure there are a few idiots that throw their butts on the ground...just like those few idiots that throw their trash/plastic bags on the ground. And how about all you Oregon druggies that leave their used syringes on the ground? Generalization has no place in this discussion
Garbage can liners will just replace the plastic grocery bag in the landfill which are more harmful to the environment. Come up with a better solution Sam!
well hear is a little news flash.  the plastic bags are not gone.  you just have to pay 15 cents for them now and they stamp the reusable label on them. granted i do see some ppl retuning with them to the store but have to wonder how many ppl really do reuse them.    wonder how many ppl buy them, take them home pile them up somewhere then throw them away when they notice they are piling up.   I just wonder.
"He says a study of the current bag ban shows a big improvement in more Portlanders than ever using reusable bags instead of plastic."Â Um..yeah..cuz that is all you left us, ass!
 @pdx10 Bet he hasn't watched komo tv4's germ tests on reusable bags! Those dirty bags brought into the store with all those germs.
Sam if you want to do us a favor, have costco bring back the plastic pails of cat litter. those pails are great for storage and i have never sent one to the landfill. Now they use a heavy plastic bag and i have to toss them as they have no use. i even got a buck a piece for some extra pails i sold at my garage sale. Bring back the pail!
Take away my Plastic Bag over my dead body! what happened to Freedom in America? this city is Dictator Sams headquarters. This city is run by ANTI-AMERICAN values.
sam should keep his nose out of it, he does not know anything about running a buisiness and hes going to create higher costs for the retailers and that means they are going to first cut costs by laying off employees followed by raising prices for the customer so he is going to cause our cost of living to go up as citizens!
@franksbeans Don't you know - that's the Socialist Democratic Party's economic philosophy. It's worked so well in Europe (sarcasm) that Dictator's In Charge like Sam Adams have brought it here. There's no reasoning with men of low moral charachter like Sam Adams, the only thing that works is to vote them out of office and the people of Portland are incapable of that. So they have made their own bed and they get what they deserve. Unfortunately, Portland's foolish and misguided policies affect the rest of the state.
I hate getting paper bags at restaurants. I routinely get items that are liquid, moist, etc. and by the time I get home the paper bag is all wet and unstable. Often times all it takes is the slightest tilt and the juice in your spaghetti or whatever is running all over the inside of the bag. Not to mention that since Portland restaurants already have to use different containers - often times those paper biodegradable types - the moisture is already seeping through the bag. I foresee a lot of people's food ending up all over the ground when they pick up their bag and it falls apart.
 @Jenni S. better invest in some Tupperware! ; )
Well, my small business will be set up at the Expo Center Christmas Bazaar in a couple weeks, and I am using plastic bags. So, if you are looking for great local handmade toy and gift items and don't mind the plastic bag, stop by and say hi. And by request I will even double-bag your purchase!!
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Sam Adams, no one cares about you anymore. You are a pathetic has been!Â
Just save up every bag you can get your hands on and make a point of using them whenever you go out and about...take them back to the store and use them again - in their face! Â yeah, passive/aggressive I know, but still sounds like fun! Â Hey wait! Â Passive/Aggressive would fit right in with Portland's general behavior!
Thanks Sam. Instead of reusing these bags for cat poop, I guess I'll be using plastic garbage bags from Costco. You're doing a great job of eliminating waste.
@Jamie ......."eliminating waste..." Just by him leaving does that !
So instead of putting my grocery store bags to good use as waste can liners, I will now have to buy expensive plastic bags to use as waste can liners. Yup, makes sense to me - NOT.
Sam's the biggest bag that needs banned, feel bad for the new guy. What a f'd up mess you've made Sammy boy.
 @oops They're all weasels from what it looks like...
Dear Sam Adams:
If you actually want to make a useful edict then put back in action the law that prohibits spitting on the sidewalks. Something has possessed young men of today to do this as a posturing and it is the grossest things besides vomiting/urinating or defecating on the sidewalks. Otherwise, your damage to us through your actions large and small, public or private but done as mayor to still negatively affect the citizenry is finished .. so be quiet about any other *bright ideas* you think you have and do us all a favor by agreeing to never, ever run for any office of any kind at all ever again.
The mayor needs to be screamed at. Organic girl here still thinks to-go boxes of chicken mahkhani from Indian restaurants would slop in her car on the way home without plastic bags enclosing them ( and even that isn't alwaysgood enough). I guess one can always bring their own pots.pans/tupperware to the restaurant for left-overs to take home in the future, right? The "mayor" needs to spend his time while still in office apologizing to people he has harmed while in office operating from bankrupt integrity. They will be waiting in line and I will be among them.
This is why I don't buy groceries in Portland.Â
Sam........perhaps you could move to another state that would embrace your foolish stupid ways. The Ukraine comes to mind.
No plastic bags at all???
What will I store my drugs in then?
Oh the humanity!!!
:-P
With ban on plastic bags, what about all the disposable diapers that are going to the landfills? I see a lot of bags in the "recycle your bags here" bins at the local grocery stores.
 @gramps Disposable Diapers?? Oh, crap!
This hasbeen mayor should fade into history and take your plastic ban with you, just try to put dog waste in paper bags or just do what was done in the past curb your dog, and charging for paper bags go take all your stupid bans and just leave.
 @parrot456 I believe that most of the doggie waste bags are in fact biodegradable...unless you're using ones left over from the store. Then, not so much. But just think...in 10,000 years whatever civilization is digging up the remains of our trash piles, they'll find bags full of sticky, gooey dog logs!
Should we ban everything that litters the environment? Â I love plastic bags, great for carrying your lunch into work or scooping the litter box "treats" into (not the same bag as the lunch bag people)
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Portland just keeps proving that when you don't think they can get any more stupid, they do.
 @boomer Sam Adams IS NOT PORTLAND and don't you forget it.
A short play done in mental imagery for Mayor Sam Adams...
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Scene opens, any Portland resident sits at their kitchen table. Listening to the radio, or watching TV. The announcer begins to speak...
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"This morning, Mayor Sam Adams said..."Â
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*click* (sound of electronic device turning off)
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Clear enough for you, Mr Adams?
 @MarkKpic I almost did that when he sprayed his guest spot on last week's "Grimm".
Fortunately, it only lasted a few seconds...still too many, but the damage was done by the time I got to the controller.
 @Mikey  @MarkKpic But, but, but his hair was perfect...
 @MarkKpic ~   Very good, Mark...  Short, sweet and right to the point..!   LOL..!
 @margay1  @MarkKpic I just wish that King Sam would take a 6 week vacation and then fade into obscurity with his pension. At this point, anyone with an IQ above that of protozoa would have to realize he's neither respected or relevent.Â
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But, that's assuming that he's not still he11 bent on making his legacy....
P.I.S.S. off Scam Adams!!! Leave things alone!
@pdxmom He can't hear you, he's getting in as many bareback rides on the Elk statue with his minor friends while he's still in office and can get away with it!
 @flyroy ROY!! Jeez...you and your damn visuals!!! AAGGHH!!!
 @Mikey He is a Realist and has degree in Literature to say in words the true picture is my guess...
Why dont you actually fix the problem and kill the scumbag people that litter them in the street? Stop bothering the general mass to fix a small problem generated from a handful of litter bugs.
 @iamright555 You mean his edicts don't solve problems?Â
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But... He created a 'gun free zone', and that's completely solved the gang violence problem...
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What's that?
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It hasn't?
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You say the problem has actually gotten worse?
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There's more reported gun crimes in the 'gun free zone'?
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Oh, well.... Nevermind then.Â
 @MarkKpic  @iamright555 Oh!! I got all happy because I thought you said gum-free zone! (clean shoes!!!) then I see that I mis-read.
 @whirledworld  @iamright555 He's still got 6 weeks left.... in his ideological mind it just might happen. Think of the hardship to the biking community done by the use of this insidious menace!
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If we outlaw gum, only criminals will chew gum!Â