COLUMBUS, Ohio – The office of Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost filed a lawsuit last week seeking to overturn the city of Athens’ ban on single-use plastic bags within its borders.
The new city rule, which took effect with the new year, prohibits stores from providing or selling single-use plastic carryout bags. Violators can be charged a fine of $150. City officials cited adverse environmental and human health consequences of the plastics themselves and the chemical inputs used to make them.
Republican lawmakers in 2021 slipped language into the state budget that says a person “may use an auxiliary container for purposes of commerce or otherwise.” Yost’s lawsuit argues the city ordinance undermines the state law.
“To ban the transfer and sale of single-use plastic bags by stores and vendors and to criminalize such conduct violates the Ohio Constitution, infringes on the rights of its citizens, and causes irreparable harm,” the lawsuit states.
A spokeswoman for Yost declined comment.
Alan Swank, the city councilman who sponsored the idea, said in an interview that the idea is a common-sense, resource concious way to reduce waste and protect the planet. He noted that Kroger already announced plans on its own to entirely phase out its use of single-use plastic bags by 2025. Ohio’s political power, he said, is out of touch.
“I think this is a classic example of state leadership basically ignoring the will of the people,” he said.
The case is likely to test the limits of “home rule” under the state constitution, which gives local governments the right to self-governance so long as their rules don’t conflict with “general laws.” Republican lawmakers in recent years have increasingly passed or proposed similar laws to block generally Democratic-controlled cities from setting their own rules in a host of policy arenas including guns, power siting, and more.
Analysts with the Legislative Service Commission, a nonpartisan office that assists state lawmakers, wrote at the time of passage that it was “unclear” how the new state law would impact a municipal ban on plastic bags.
Athens’ ordinance itself notes cities’ home rule authority to pass police and sanitary laws, invoking plastic bags’ tendency to block storm drains or wind up littering trees and vegetation.
Yost’s lawsuit notes comments made to WOUB, local public media, in early 2023 from storeowners worrying over financial strain from the ordinance. For instance, a local bookstore owner said his store uses up to 50,000 plastic bags per year. Paper bags cost more and are heavier and more unwieldy.
Previous legislation seeking to stamp out municipal plastic bag bans passed in temporary form in 2020 with backing from the chemical and grocery industries over objections from local governments and environmental advocates.
Cuyahoga County in 2020 blocked retail business from issuing plastic bags. However, the county hasn’t enforced the ban and seeks only voluntary compliance from sellers.
Jake Zuckerman covers state politics and policy for Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.