Plastics ban would hurt small business in Connecticut

As retail store owners and operators, we share our customers’ concerns about Connecticut’s environment, and we are committed to doing our part to address the effects of plastic litter on our land and in waterways.

However, we’re also concerned about the unintended consequences of ill-conceived policies to ban certain types of plastic packaging, as proposed in Senate Bill 99. The bill would negatively impact the stores where people shop every day and our state’s smallbusiness community, which will be burdened with higher costs that are difficult to absorb. And we do not want to pass these costs on to our customers.

Many of these shops are family-owned and have been in operation for decades. Think of the local retailer who gave your your first job in high school where you learned important skills that laid the foundation for your future. These small local businesses often survive on very thin profits. Senate Bill 99 would burden them with another costly government mandate by forcing them to use more expensive, less effective packaging that actually has a heavier environmental footprint.

Senate Bill 99 is bad for our economy or our environment. Packaging is designed for one primary purpose: to deliver goods safely to you. When we don’t use the best packaging, we create more food waste as a society, which is hugely damaging to the environment (if food waste were a country, it would be the third-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions). In a nation where we waste nearly 40 percent of our food, it’s critical that we use the best packaging for the job. Often times, plastic packaging plays that role best.

Banning certain types of packaging might make some people feel good. But it’s a step backward for the economy and the environment.

We do, of course, need to address the effects of packaging waste. As business owners and employers, we believe that innovation is key to addressing many environmental issues, such as plastics in our environment. As a state and a nation, we should support initiatives to recover and repurpose as much plastic (and other materials) as possible, to keep it in use and out of our environment. For example, multiple emerging technologies will make it possible to convert today’s difficult-to-recycle plastics into a host of new products, such as new plastics, transportation fuels and other valuable goods.

Instead of banning one product after another, we should focus on creating the businesses and jobs of the future that can lead to a “circular economy” — meaning used plastics and other materials are repurposed after use instead of discarded. That will actually help keep plastic packaging waste out of our environment.