Evanston extends bag ban compliance window for small businesses

Evanston City Council voted Aug. 28 to extend the grace period for the city’s single-use plastic bag ban for small businesses after concerns from an individual business came to light.

The extension would only include businesses of 10,000 feet or smaller and would only apply to single-use plastic bags businesses have already purchased. The grace period was extended to a Jan. 21, 2024 hard deadline.

Council voted 8-1 in favor of the extension.

The issue centers around D & D Finer Foods on Noyes Street, which had purchased a year’s worth of single use plastic bags in summer 2022. The owner reached out to City Manager Luke Stowe to request being able to use the store-specific branded bags until the remaining supply is gone. Owners said the bags would be used by the end of the year and the remaining amount cost between $12,000 and $13,000.

The plastic bag ban, along with a 10-cent tax on paper bags to encourage shoppers to bring reusable bags, began implementation on Aug. 1 after being voted on in May 2023, giving businesses only two months to adjust to the changing regulation.

Councilmember Clare Kelly said the two month turnaround time for compliance was an oversight by the city and caused stress on local businesses.

Evanston’s Sustainability and Resilience Manager Cara Pratt agreed the timeline was a tight turnaround, which prompted Councilmember Bobby Burns to say if businesses weren’t given appropriate time to make changes, an extension should be given.

Councilmember Krissie Harris voted against the extension, saying she could in no way support it after having worked with a business in her ward in a similar situation. That business ended up donating $24,000 worth of bags to a soup kitchen.

“I think if we pass a law, these are the things we have to think of proactively, not after the fact,” she said. “If we make a law then we have to live by the law that we made.”

Harris said the business did get a tax write off for the donation and she could pass the information along to D & D Finer Foods if they wanted to take a similar route.

Councilmember Devon Reid agreed with Harris, saying the city needs to stand by its decisions. He also said small stores with remaining bags could add charges on to the bags instead of giving them away for free.

Other council members expressed concerns that by not passing the extension, it would lead businesses to believe the city is unwilling to work with them when issues come up.

“Obviously they made a business decision under one set of regulations and we changed the game on them. I don’t think it’s in the city’s best interest to do harm to a business like that,” Councilmember Thomas Suffredin said. “If the decision is to not be reasonable about this, this is just another example of why we make it so difficult to do business in Evanston.”

Pratt said some businesses have objected to the ban, calling it a nuisance and blaming her, even calling her a communist.

“There’s just a lot of negativity about this type of legislative change,” Pratt said when interviewed following the bans first week in implementation. “Many other communities have done this and have quickly gotten over it. That’s what I hope happens with us too.”

The city has been working with businesses to educate and correct violations, according to Director of Health and Human Services Ike Ogbo. If a business doesn’t want to work with the city, he said there are enforcement powers in place.

“As long as they are making an effort to correct it, we will continue to work with that facility,” Ogbo said.

Burns said that even with the exemption, enforcement needs to be at the forefront.

“If we truly believe these bags are polluting the environment, if you apply that to something else that’s a lot more obvious like somebody dumping oil into the lake, we wouldn’t want them to continue to do something that we’ve already said is polluting our environment,” Burns said. “Whenever that point is, if we really believe in this, we need to get serious and make a deadline.”