Charging a dime for a bag? Some think it's a good idea

NAGS HEAD

Along Hatteras Island, majestic dunes shield the road from the ocean. Sea grasses wave in the constant breeze. Seabirds cruise overhead.

And perched on the grasses or wafting across the dunes, inevitably, are plastic grocery bags.

Up and down the Outer Banks, whether they're in bushes at national monuments or floating on glittering waterways, the "flimsy bag that we all use" - an estimated 2.5 million a year on the Outer Banks - mar the environment, state Sen. Marc Basnight, a Manteo Democrat and Senate leader, told a gathering of local officials Friday.

The man with the biggest political muscle in the state called the hasty meeting at Basnight's Lone Cedar Cafe, his family's Nags Head restaurant, to discuss proposed local legislation that would charge between 10 cents and 25 cents for each bag, paper or plastic, as a way to discourage their use.

The rule would not apply to thinner plastic bags like those used to wrap produce, or the large, thick plastic bags used for bulky or heavier items bought in hardware or department stores.

At the same time, reusable bags - perhaps decorated with promotions of the Outer Banks or the business - would be offered for 50 cents to a dollar.

"We're telling the world we want to lead," the senator said. "We want to do it differently."

Money collected for the bags would be put in a scholarship fund for environmental studies.

Basnight said he would present the bill to the General Assembly as local legislation, which requires approval in both chambers, but does not have to be signed by the governor. Local bills in North Carolina are more likely to pass, he said, because they have the support of the communities affected.

"A statewide bill like this would go down in flames," Basnight told the roomful of elected officials from Currrituck, Hyde and Dare counties. "They could try to kill this. They will not like this," Basnight said of his legislative colleagues.

An N.C. Senate bill introduced in March by state Sen. Josh Stein, D-Wake, would ban plastic bags at major retail outlets, except for those used for meats, produce and fish.

Schorr Johnson, Basnight's spokesman, said Basnight supports Stein's effort, but the bill has not moved out of committee.

The elected leaders who spoke welcomed the proposal, especially if it was expanded to include the mainland areas.

Reducing the use of plastic bags is not a new concept, but one that draws opposition from bag manufacturers and some businesses. That hasn't happened yet with Basnight's proposal. Virginia Rep. Jim Moran, D-Alexandria, introduced The Plastic Bag Reduction Act in April, which would place a 5 cent fee on single use bags.

"I think the idea has merit," said Renee Cahoon, Nags Head's mayor and owner of Cahoon's grocery. "We've all seen them blowing around. We all hate them."

Many visitors, especially from overseas, she said, already bring their own bags and are used to recycling. And the business community might grumble, but they'd come around.

"If you give people a better choice," Cahoon said, "most of the time they'll take it."

Pilot news research Jakon Hays contributed to this report.

Catherine Kozak, (252) 441-1711, cate.kozak@pilotonline.com