Concerns and assessment of the Bring Your Own Bag ordinance

The “Bring your Own Bag” ordinance (Cambridge City Code Chapter 8.68) has been in effect for two months at this time and while it is still too early to fully understand the impact of the ordinance, we have heard from a number of stores that they and their customers have adopted smoothly to the change. The following is some anecdotal information that we have received; some of the larger grocery stores have indicated that they have seen between 50% and 80% reduction in paper bag usage and similarly some of the smaller stores we have spoken with have indicated a major reduction in bag usage as well. Additionally, an informal survey of Cambridge Local First businesses yielded 9 responses. All 9 businesses were supportive of the ordinance’s goal of reducing waste and protecting the environment.

Each has seen a reduction in bag use; some as high as a 90% reduction. A few commented on how the ordinance is a cost savings for their business. We are further informed that more than 30 businesses have completely stopped offering bags at all at the point of sale, thus avoiding the ordinance and reducing waste On March 14th of this year we forwarded a letter to City Council, a copy of which is attached, outlining progress associated with the outreach and communication, both with retailers and neighbors around the ordinance at that time. We indicated that while they was some confusion and indeed challenges around some aspects of the ordinance overall having contacted and spoken with more than 800 retailers in the City, it was felt that the community was well prepared and provisioned to handle the new requirements.

At this time, in excess of 7,000 reusable bags have been distributed throughout the community, this number does not include the additional 4,400 bags that the City has recently purchased and is in the process of distributing. The Recycling Advisory Committee together with members of the Department of Public Works organized a bag drive in the fall of 2015 and this effort was generously supported by some of our larger supermarkets and the Boston Convention Center.

The table below indicates where the original stock of bags have been sent for further distribution and the additional bags will be sent along to these locations throughout the summer.

Reusable bag distribution:

Location # of bags Food Pantries 1650 CHA Headquarters 800 CHA Public Housing 2625 Just-A-Start 600 Homeowners Rehab 1200 Fresh Pond Apartments 575 Mayor’s Office 250 Total 7700 # delivered as of 5/16/16 The following entities have contributed significant numbers of reusable bags as part of our bag drive; Major Donations Whole Foods: 1600 Boston Convention Center: 1500 Star Market: 600 Medieval Academy of America: 300 Outreach/Enforcement:

DPW has had staff monitor compliance since the effective date. Our primary focus continues to be on educating businesses at this time. Given some of our preliminary monitoring we think that additional attention needs to be brought to ensuring retailers are charging a minimum $.10 per bag at checkout.

On the BYOB website, there is a public form to report non-compliant businesses. We have received 15 reports on non-compliance and have followed up with each business. There have been 78 applications for an exemption to drawdown their single-use plastic bag stock and most applications have been accepted.

March 14, 2016 To:

Richard C. Rossi, City Manager From: Owen O’ Riordan, Commissioner, DPW Re: Bring your Own Bag Ordinance.

The “Bring your Own Bag” ordinance (Cambridge City Code Chapter 8.68) becomes effective on March 31st of this year. When this ordinance was being considered last year, we indicated to the City Council that we would report back concerning any unforeseen issues that arose during the City’s roll-out of the ordinance. Further to our commitment, we hereby provide a summary of some of the feedback we have received throughout the year relative to the above ordinance.

The Department of Public Works, together with the Community Development Department and the License Commission have attended/held approximately twenty (20) public meetings and events with various members of the business community since the ordinance was enacted. We have completed a large mailing to all of the various businesses throughout the City further identifying all of the relevant provisions associated with the ordinance. We are continuing to provide assistance to retailers to ensure that they are prepared for March 31st. A large number of staff and volunteers completed a door to door outreach event with neighborhood businesses and stores on March 2nd and we expect to further magnify publicity to the general public in the coming weeks so that there is broad awareness of the requirements of the ordinance by both retailers and customers by the effective date.

The Department of Public Works has promulgated regulations pursuant to the ordinance, in which we have established that the minimum charge for checkout bags is $.10. Both the ordinance and the regulations are posted on the DPW website.

We are also in the process of purchasing reusable bags to go along with those bags we have recovered during the Recycling Advisory Committee (RAC) bag drive to distribute to seniors and disadvantaged members of our community. We expect to circulate these bags in April and May of this year so as to better encourage and enable compliance throughout the community.

As discussed below, during the course of the past year we have received numerous communications from members of the business community, specifically with regards to 1) the tax ramifications of the checkout charge, 2) applicability of ordinance to handle-less bags; 3) applicability of ordinance to delivery service shopping ; 4) the exemption provisions; and 5) the enforcement processes. The following represents some of the issues that have been brought to our attention (1) Sales tax on paper, compostable or reusable bags at checkout The City has indicated to store owners and restaurants that they should presume that the checkout bag charge is taxable; however, there has been considerable discussion concerning such, most particularly with restaurateurs. The Massachusetts Department of Revenue (DOR) has reviewed the ordinance and the issue of taxation, and whether the container exemption; Chapter 64H, Section 6(q) https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleIX/Chapter64h/Section6 applies to charges for bags or not. DOR has indicated that it will be issuing a public letter and a “technical information release” to reaffirm that retail establishments should charge sales tax on the purchase of checkout bags at the point of sale. Additionally, restaurants may charge meals tax for checkout bags at the point of sale. (2) Bags without handles At this time the ordinance excludes checkout bags without handles from consideration. This exclusion also includes reusable bags and thus allows retailers not to charge for paper bags or reusable bags when those bags are provided without handles. Thus, for example there is no requirement to charge for submarine sandwich bags or pharmacy prescription paper bags that generally are provided without handles. During the course of our meetings with retailers we have indicated that if we observe an increase in the use of handle-less bags as substitute bags at checkout we will report back to City Council and may propose an amendment to the ordinance that would prohibit such. (3) Virtual and Delivery Service Shopping.

There are numerous virtual and delivery service shopping resources available to customers throughout the community, some of which purchase goods on behalf of customers at retail stores and others where the point of sale is virtual. At this time, specific to those where there is no physical point of sale there are no provisions in the existing ordinance that would prohibit the use of plastic bags or require a charge to be imposed for alternative bags. (4) Exemption Provisions Presently, the Department of Public Works is in receipt of approximately one dozen exemption requests, the majority of which are associated with businesses requesting additional time to drawdown existing inventories. The Department is also in receipt of two requests seeking relief specific to the ordinance exemption clause 8.68.060.A1, i.e. unique circumstances where no reasonable alternatives are available.

These exemption requests are presently being reviewed and I expect to issue rulings with regard to such within the next couple of weeks. (5) Enforcement Provisions -- Focus on Education Over the coming months, the Department of Public Works will monitor compliance with the ordinance across the community. The primary focus initially will be on the larger businesses and over time that focus will move on to smaller retailers. We see our role, certainly at the outset, as focusing on educating and providing assistance with problem-solving for businesses, rather than on enforcement, recognizing that ultimately such authority is available if necessary.

At this time we believe the authority afforded the Commissioner of Public Works, the License Commission, the Commissioner of Inspectional Services and the Commissioner of Public Health is adequate to carry out and enforce the provisions of the ordinance. We will continue to inform the City Council of issues that may arise.