OBERLIN, Ohio — Many Toledo residents are used to tossing plastic bags into their blue recycling bins and then forgetting about them.
But Dan Schoewe, the operations manager of Republic Services’ Oberlin Recycling Center, doesn’t have that luxury. The plant he runs is the destination for everything Toledoans throw into their curbside recycling cans — whether it’s really recyclable or not.
“Perhaps one of the biggest impediments to successful recycling is the tendency of many people to throw stuff into a blue container and simply assume that it will be recycled somehow,” he said. “People frequently put things in recycling bins that can’t be recycled, ranging from plastic bags to bowling balls.”
Mr. Schoewe refers to such people as “wishful recyclers” who assume that if they throw something into a blue bin, Republic Services will somehow find a way to recycle it. But that’s not the case.
“Know what to throw,” he advises. “And when in doubt, throw it out.”
Compounding Mr. Schoewe’s challenge is the fact that unrecyclable plastics contaminate materials that are otherwise recyclable.
“Plastic bags are the most common contaminate,” he explained. “They get mixed in with paper, and then we can’t recycle the paper.”
It’s easy to see how plastic bags could gum up the works at the Oberlin Recycling Center, about 90 miles southeast of Toledo in Lorain County. Truckloads of the contents of Toledo’s blue recycling bins are dumped onto a fast-moving conveyor belt. Some of the items are pulled off the line by hand, while others are nabbed by savvy robots that sort them by material and type. But the line moves so quickly that some bags inevitably get through.
The plastics industry agrees that plastic bags shouldn’t be put into recycling bins. A website maintained by a corporate group called America’s Plastic Makers advises that “Stretchy plastic bags and wraps often get stuck in recycling equipment. Workers then have to shut down the machinery and yank out the stretchy stuff. It’s a waste of time, money, and material.”
Plastics numbered 1 and 2 are “relatively recyclable,” says Adam Cassi, the executive director of Keep Toledo/Lucas County Beautiful. “But even those can be difficult to recycle if they are contaminated by other plastics. Plastic bags are also difficult, if not impossible, to recycle.”
Since they can’t usually be recycled, plastic bags wind up in landfills, where it is estimated that they will take more than 1,000 years to decompose. As the plastic breaks down, microplastics leach into the surrounding soil and water. The decaying plastic also emits harmful methane and ethylene gases as it degrades, which contributes to global warming.
“Recycling works very well for paper and cardboard — and sometimes for glass, but not for plastic,” Mr. Cassi said. “We do a lot of educational programs urging people to ‘reduce, reuse, and recycle.’ And that’s important. But single-use plastics are the real issue.”
Plastic bags generate greenhouse gas emissions when they are made and when they are disposed of. Because of these harmful effects on the environment, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington have banned them from being used by retailers. The United Nations reports that 91 countries and territories have also restricted or banned the use of single-use plastic bags.
However, other states, such as Florida, Arizona, Missouri, and Ohio, have tried to bar local communities from banning single-use plastic bags.
Despite Ohio’s ban on bag bans, four localities have ordinances that prohibit retailers from distributing plastic bags to their customers — but not all are being enforced.
Since Jan. 1, 2020, Bexley has had a single-use plastics ordinance that limits when local businesses can give out plastic bags. The ban doesn’t apply to bags used for produce, meat, dry cleaning, and other specific situations, such as a restaurant offering a plastic bag for hot and easy-to-spill takeout items such as soups.
“The number of plastic tumbleweeds we see blowing across the Giant Eagle Parking lot has decreased significantly,” says Bexley’s sustainability programs coordinator, Elizabeth Ellman.
Athens enacted a plastic bag ban that went into effect on Jan. 1. But five days before that, the state of Ohio sued Athens seeking a judgment that its ban violates a 2021 law that, as the state grandly claims, “enshrined the right for all Ohioans to choose whether they use a plastic bag whenever they go to the store.”
Athens argues that the state’s 2021 law is unconstitutional under the home rule amendment to the Ohio constitution, which protects the power of municipalities to legislate on matters of concern to them.
The case is pending in the Athens County Court of Common Pleas. No date has been set for a hearing or decision in the case.
“We are talking about years more litigation,” says attorney Lisa Eliason, who represents Athens in the case. “But in the meantime, we have a 90 percent compliance rate here.”
In September, 2020, Cincinnati's city council passed an ordinance banning single-use plastic bags from most food-selling businesses, including grocery stores, restaurants, and convenience stores, starting Jan. 1, 2021. However, according to the city’s website, implementation of the ordinance has been delayed indefinitely, and the city is not enforcing it.
Similarly, Cuyahoga County enacted a plastic bag ban that was to have taken effect on Jan. 1, 2020, but is currently engaged in “soft enforcement” of the ordinance.
“We’re pushing out grants to retailers, but we’re not citing them,” said Cuyahoga County Council member Sunny Simon. “We have a robust program that helps retailers transition away from plastic bags. We incentivize the switch.”
Toledo doesn’t have a plastic bag ordinance, and the prospects for one seem dim. But some retailers have taken it upon themselves to migrate away from plastic bags.
Costco, for instance, phased out most of its use of plastic bags years ago. Sautter’s Market, which operates grocery stores in Sylvania and Waterville, now uses bags that are made from plants and other compostable materials.
“They’re more expensive than traditional plastic bags,” says store owner Jim Sautter, “but it seemed like the right thing to do.”
Mr. Sautter says that customer response to the plant-based bags has been generally positive, though a few people have complained that they can be hard to open.
He purchases the bags from a local company, Biofutura-US. According to the company’s founder, Sally Hobbib Rumman, the bags are made from corn starch and Polylactic acid, a biodegradable, biocompatible, thermoplastic polymer.
“These bags are certified by European agencies as suitable for composting,” Ms. Rumman says. “They will compost in your backyard in 180 days.”
Perhaps the most innovative way of prompting customers to stop using plastic bags was devised by Terrence Williams, the proprietor of Paul’s Serv-Rite, a grocery store located in Cleveland. Every time a shopper brings a free Paul’s Serv-Rite reusable bag to his store, Mr. Williams gives that customer a raffle ticket. Every week, the raffle winner receives a $20 gift certificate to the store.
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