Single-use plastics banned in county

Environmental, business groups support measure

Say goodbye to single-use plastic bags in Santa Fe County.

The County Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to approve an ordinance banning restaurants and retailers from providing single-use plastic bags or polystyrene containers like Styrofoam in unincorporated areas of the county.

The city of Santa Fe enacted a single-use plastic bag ban in 2015, though the city did not ban plastic foam containers.

The county ordinance carves out a handful of exceptions, such as bags used for newspaper deliveries or to package restaurant takeout with a high liquid content.

Businesses have until Oct. 26 to comply with the ban.

Businesses can also choose how to pass the cost of alternatives on to consumers, although the county “encourages” retailers to charge a fee for recycled-content paper bags, which would incentivize consumers to bring their own reusable bags.

Environmental advocates and about a dozen residents attending a public hearing Tuesday hailed the county’s decision as a necessary step to address burgeoning plastic pollution.

“I do believe plastics are polluting our world and our bodies far too much,” Eldorado resident Sue Garfitt told commissioners. “We must stop doing what we’re doing and look to the future.”

The ban received mixed responses from the business community, which includes at least 80 stores, gas stations and restaurants in the unincorporated county.

That’s because paper bags cost about 10 cents more per bag than single-use plastic bags.

Ray Valencia, manager of the Allsup’s Convenience Store off of N.M. 14, opposed the ban, which he said will

“highly affect” his customers.

The store already offers both paper and plastic bags at checkout, but most people prefer the more durable plastic bags, Valencia said.

The store goes through several hundred of them per day.

“I think it will just make a lot of people’s lives a lot harder,” Valencia said.

Hugh Hackett — owner of three stores in Madrid, including the gift store Maggie’s Diner — will also have to find a way to absorb the costs of a transition form plastic to paper bags, he said.

But Hackett still supports the change. “I actually agree with banning plastic, so I can’t be a hypocrite,” he said.

Leaders of the Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce and New Mexico Restaurant Association also spoke in support of the ban.

“More and more restaurants are making these moves on their own,” New Mexico Restaurant Association CEO Carol Wight said in an interview. “Their customers are demanding it, and they also feel their own responsibility toward these environmental improvements.”

The county also reduced penalties for noncompliance to a system of graduated fines after feedback from business owners who said the penalty of up to 90 days in jail in the initial ordinance for a first offense was “egregious,” Wight said.

“When our policymakers consult with business owners, we can craft policies that support both the economic and an environmentally sustainable future, benefiting all who live, work, and dine here,” Tomasita’s owner and New Mexico Restaurant Association Board Chair George Gundrey wrote in a news release.

Michael Stein, owner of Tesuque Village Market, said his business has used compostable bags and other alternatives for years.

At about 25 cents per bag, these alternatives are expensive, he said, but “that’s the cost of business.”