Philadelphia mayor and council members at odds over 10-cent paper bag fee bill

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Philadelphia City Council is expected to pass a bill requiring all supermarkets, corner stores and shops in the city to charge customers 10 cents for each paper bag. The bill would strengthen the city’s plastic bag ban, which cut down on plastic bag use while causing paper bag use to soar.

But it’s not clear whether Mayor Cherelle Parker would sign it.

A similar bill passed City Council in 2023 but died on outgoing Mayor Jim Kenney’s desk.

Here’s what to know.

What would the single-use bag fee bill do?

Philadelphia’s existing plastic bag ban went into effect in 2021, banning single-use plastic bags and paper bags made of nonrecycled materials in grocery stores, corner stores and restaurants.

A city-commissioned study estimated that in the ban’s first year, it prevented over 200 million plastic bags from being used in the city, a volume that could fill City Hall every eight months. But the study also estimated that the ban nearly tripled the percentage of customers who used paper bags.

While paper bags can be recycled or composted, they take more energy to produce than plastic bags.

The bag fee bill, heard in a City Council committee Monday, would attempt to close this loophole and encourage shoppers to bring their own reusable bags by requiring establishments to charge customers 10 cents per paper bag. The fee would not apply to paper bags used for prepared food take-out, drive-through orders or deliveries.

“You have to change behavior,” Councilmember Mark Squilla, the bill’s main sponsor, said during Monday’s hearing. “Even though it’s only 10 cents, it’s the mindset that, ‘I’m not giving them 10 cents for a bag. I’m just going to bring my own bag.’”

The version of the bill Squilla introduced last month would have required a fee of 15 cents per bag. Squilla amended the bill to lower the required fee Monday.

The bill would also clarify that the ban applies to thicker single-use plastic bags, while adding an exception for plastic bags that enclose utensils or condiments.

Carlton Williams, director of Philadelphia’s Office of Clean and Green Initiatives, said clarifying that the bag ban applies regardless of thickness would make it “easier to enforce.”

A tax on poor Philadelphians, or a solution to litter?

The paper bag fee was cut from the original plastic bag ban, which passed City Council in 2019.

Then-Councilmember Maria Quiñones-Sánchez called the proposed fee a “regressive tax” and a “fee to poor people.” Mayor Kenney’s administration cited similar reasoning when the paper bag fee came up again in 2023, adding worries that it would push Philly shoppers and businesses outside of the city.

Williams echoed these ideas during Monday’s hearing. He said Parker’s administration supports the “intent of the bill,” but worries the fee could hurt “mom-and-pop businesses” and disproportionately impact low-income Philadelphians, communities of color, seniors and recipients of SNAP food assistance.

“This well-intended bill may unintentionally cause harm, especially given the current economy,” Williams said.

But environmental justice and anti-dumping advocates have argued many supermarkets in marginalized neighborhoods already do not offer bags for free, forcing customers to buy or bring their own. Testifying at the hearing, Maurice Sampson, Eastern Pennsylvania director at the nonprofit Clean Water Action, said in cases where stores do not charge bag fees, they pass along the cost of bags through food prices, which all customers pay whether they bring their own bags or not.

“There is no foundation or basis in the idea that fees on bags will hurt low-income people,” said Sampson, who has been pushing for a bag fee for years. “It is an assumption that is made out of the gate.”

Teea Tynes, an organizer with Trash Academy who often cleans her block in the Fairhill section of North Philadelphia, supports the fee because she expects it would reduce litter.

“The argument that the single-use plastic bag ban and a bag fee are burdensome to communities like mine is extremely insulting and obscures the real burden,” she said in written testimony.

What’s next for the bag fee bill?

With 10 cosponsors, the bill is expected to pass when it comes up for a full City Council vote.

Parker has several choices. If she were to veto the bill, supporters in Council would need 12 votes to override her veto.

But if Parker were to decline to sign the bill but not veto it, the bill would become law 10 days later.