Oahu plastic bag ban takes effect

After three years of warnings, it’s finally here.

The city’s plastic bag ban becomes law Wednesday.

City Environmental Services Director Lori Kahi­kina, who enforces the ban, admits she’s among those having a hard time adjusting.

She estimated she’s piled up a dozen reusable bags in the trunk of her car in anticipation of July 1. But like many other folks, she sometimes forgets to take them into the supermarket or store.

"It’s going to take some getting used to," Kahi­kina said. "Everyone’s just going to have to try to remember to bring in their own bags."

Oahu residents joined folks in the rest of the state Wednesday as the city’s plastic bag ban took effect.

The plastic bag ordinance was signed by then-Mayor Peter Carlisle in 2012 and amended last year. While retailers can no longer give customers plastic bags, the ordinance allows for a number of exceptions.

Retailers can choose to give compostable plastic bags along with recyclable paper bags that contain a minimum of 40 percent post-consumer recycled content. The reusables that customers can take to the store are also defined. They have to be made of fabric or other durable material suitable for reuse, including plastic that is at least 2.25 mils, or 0.0022 of an inch, thick.

Retailers and restaurateurs can also still use plastic bags to carry plate lunches, poke bowls and other prepared food, as well as fresh fruits and vegetables, meat and fish, frozen food and other loose items including nuts, coffee, candy, flowers or plants, medications, newspapers, laundry and pet items.

Those retailers using compostable or paper bags will be paying 10-14 cents a bag, significantly more than the 2 cents a bag they’ve been paying for plastics. Some retailers have warned that they will have no choice but to pass on those costs to consumers.

Environmental groups, which have led the charge for plastic bag bans, contend the environmental factors far outweigh widespread use of plastic bags.

Some retailers have been gearing up for years. Foodland will give 5 cents credit or three Hawaiian Airlines mileage awards for every reusable bag used.

And if, like Kahi­kina, the city official, you forget to bring your bag into the supermarket, Foodland has promised that its employees will walk you to your car, put your groceries in your trunk for you and still give you Hawaiian Miles.

To see Ordinance 12-8, visit 808ne.ws/1IMdOBr. The 2014 amendment bans biodegradables but allows compostables.