URBANA — University of Illinois students are set to make a presentation tonight before the Urbana City Council on implementing a fee on disposable bags.
The university’s Environmental Leadership Program will give a presentation on “Possibilities for a Single-Use Bag Tax in Urbana” at tonight’s Urbana City Council meeting.
Aldermen Grace Wilken and Chris Evans are sponsoring the agenda item. Wilken, who is a member of Urbana’s Sustainability Advisory Commission, said she and the commission would recommend that implementing a bag tax be included in the mayor and council’s strategic goals, which are up for approval at Monday’s meeting.
“The SAC passed a resolution recommending it to council, and it had some suggestions on fees and how to implement it, but also a lot of the details are still to be figured out,” she said.
“There’s not any set-in-stone cost or pass-forward at this point.”
The Environmental Leadership Program is an initiative of the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment that is designed to help students prepare for “leadership roles in the sustainability field.”
According to the institute, the initiative’s spring 2024 programming includes opportunities for participants to “learn about the policy-building process at the local and state levels, develop real-world environmental policy linked to the current legislative session, engage with local and state government officials, and present their policies to legislative staff and decision-makers in Springfield and Urbana-Champaign.”
“A lot of this is for the students to get the experience of that interaction,” said Eric Green, senior academic program instructor/adviser for the institute. “... For us, this is a partnership with a council member from Urbana.”
According to Green, Wilken indicated that students could support city staff by conducting research on this topic, which also allows them to use their skills in a real-world context.
Green said the presentation will include research students have done on other municipalities and their bag taxes. They may also share information about local grocery stores and “how they would respond to such a tax,” he said.
Wilken noted this isn’t the first time the council discussed the possibility of a bag tax. The council previously discussed the idea in May 2023 at the recommendation of the Sustainability Advisory Commission.
“Our recommendation is to make that cost around 10 cents per carryout bag, with the consideration given to allowing the retailers to retain 1 to 2 cents,” commission member Stacy Gloss said at the time.
The commission advised implementing the fee for paper and plastic checkout bags, with exemptions for SNAP and WIC recipients. They also suggested creating a “green revolving fund” to collect bag fees and invest the revenue in other efforts to promote sustainability in Urbana.
At the time, aldermen called on staff to seek feedback from the community’s largest retailers.
Other Illinois cities have implemented bag fees, though the specifics of the policy vary.
In Chicago, there is a 7-cent tax on checkout bags sold or used in the city. Stores are able to retain 2 cents for every bag.
For Edwardsville, there is a 10-cent fee for “disposable plastic and paper checkout bags at all retail businesses greater than 7,000 square feet.” According to city officials, the entire fee is retained by the retailer to help offset the cost of bags and “recoup administrative expenses.”
The city of Evanston implemented a complete ban on plastic bags at all city businesses. There is also a 10-cent tax on all other single-use bags, such as paper bags, at non-restaurant retail chains that are over 10,000 feet. Retailers are able to retain half of the tax.
All three cities’ bag-tax policies provide exemptions for shoppers participating in food-assistance programs.
Wilken said she sees a bag tax as a way to generate revenue while also encouraging people to change their behavior.
“Plastic bags and microplastics are one of the next huge issues impacting human health and the environment,” she said.
