She replied a week ago, I'm just a slacker in posting here reply. She brings up similar points to other council members regarding the foam ban. In general I think there is some concern about meat tray and tack out dishes. The thing that is weird to me is that I remember when all the take out I had as a kid was paper. Don't know why now that's impossible.

Here is Sally Clark's reply:

Thank you for your email about the proposal to place a 20 cent fee on plastic and paper bags at grocery stores, along with a phased-in ban on non-recyclable food containers (e.g. Styrofoam). Sorry for the mass-email response, but I've received a quite a few emails on the topic. This is the fastest way to get a response back to everyone.

I am co-sponsoring both pieces of legislation and am looking forward to the bills coming to a vote in the weeks ahead.

I'm aware that the over-all impact of the bag fee will be less than other actions we need to take to stem climate change impacts, but I do think it's a significant step toward decreasing Seattle's hunger for plastic bags. Currently, we dispose of more than 360 million bags per year. It's estimated that the switch will save 4,000 tons of greenhouse gas per year -- the equivalent of taking 665 cars off the road. All the money collected by the city (a small portion stays with the stores for administrative costs) will go toward waste prevention, recycling, city cleanup and environmental education programs. The City owes you at least one free cloth bag. I'm committed to getting more free bags into people's hands, especially low-income people who count every penny.

Along with the bag fee comes a ban on non-recyclable food containers. This one may be harder to institute because of a lack of substitutes in some cases, but I think we can phase in the change. Some restaurants are already making the transition. If the City Council votes to implement the ban, restaurants have a year in which to transition to recyclable to-go containers. Some of these new containers are corn-based, which presents its own set of environmental concerns, but, overall, this is a step forward. The biggest challenge I've heard about so far relates to packaging meat and finding a Styrofoam replacement that won't act like an over-soaked sponge. I trust the market will respond to the demand for a Styrofoam substitute, but we may have to phase in the ban over time if we can’t find a reasonable substitute.

Some of you have written that the bag fee and Styrofoam ban aren't the right approach or are over-reaching. If climate change weren't such an urgent issue I would agree that these proposals shouldn't be brought up. However, I think this is one of many changes that make sense when we calculate the real cost of waste.

Again, thank you for your message and for taking the time to advocate for sustainability in Seattle. The City Council is currently reviewing the details of the legislation in the Environment, Emergency Management & Utilities Committee, and I'll be looking forward to it coming to full Council for a vote in the near future. Please contact me anytime regarding this issue or other city matters.

Sincerely,

Sally

Sally J. Clark
Seattle City Council
600 Fourth Ave., 2nd Floor
PO Box 34025
Seattle, WA 98104-1860
sally.clark@seattle.gov