Does the single-use bag tax work? Answer unclear in Woodstock after 2 years

Woodstock resident Denise Nicks started carrying reusable bags after a 10-cent, single-use bag tax started in the city. She said she keeps a pile of grocery bags in her truck so she doesn’t forget.

“Without the tax, I would get lazy and not always bring my own. I think it’s a good thing.”

Woodstock City Council first passed the single-use bag tax ordinance in 2019. It was paused during the pandemic to ease the burden on residents and resumed in August 2021.

The tax was implemented to reduce single-use plastics, which can harm the environment and pollute waterways. Whether the tax is effective at reducing plastic bag use remains unclear, reports on single-use bag purchases from Woodstock retailers show.

Woodstock was the fourth community in Illinois to enforce the single-use bag tax. Most recently, Batavia started its tax in November 2022. Evanston started a plastic bag ban in August.

For each plastic or paper bag used at retailers and grocery stores, the customer is charged 10 cents. The store keeps 3 cents and the remaining 7 cents goes to the city of Woodstock.

Some shoppers, including Woodstock resident Mark Beltz, said they started avoiding shopping in Woodstock because of the tax. Beltz said he will stop at grocery stores in other towns on the way home from work to avoid the tax.

“Really in order for this to work, all the surrounding cities need to do it,” Beltz said. “I see people all the time walking out with armfuls of groceries rather than pay the tax.”

Woodstock City Manager Roscoe Stelford said shopping in Woodstock is not on the decline, citing sales tax data showing a rise in shopping over the past couple of years.

Woodstock resident Melody Burns said there would be a bigger positive impact on the environment if manufacturers were taxed for using plastic packaging.

“I don’t know what the solution is, but if they are going to penalize people for using plastic bags, they should penalize manufacturers, as well,” she said.

The Northwest Herald obtained single-use bag reports from participating retailers, with the highest numbers coming from Walmart, Jewel and Menards.

More than 1.6 million single-use bags were used in Woodstock in 2022. More than 400,000 had been used as of April of this year.

This year’s single-use bag use compared to last year’s is similar, with 10,000 fewer bags used in April 2023 compared to April 2022. This year doesn’t hold consistently lower numbers, as 15,000 more bags were used in March 2023 than in March 2022.

On average, Woodstock goes through about 123,000 single-use bags a month. Numbers could be higher since self-checkout systems usually rely on an honor system by the customer to count their bags.

Knowing if the bag tax is effective in reducing single-bag use, will take some time as the city gathers data, Stelford said. No records of single-use bag use was recorded before the tax, so it’s difficult to determine how effective the tax immediately was on residents.

Stelford said he hopes plastic bag use decreases so garbage in the city is reduced. The wastewater treatment plant got clogged with plastic bags a couple of months ago, Stelford said. The grinders had to be completely cleared out, which costs taxpayers money.

“There are other hidden costs that plastic bags create that you don’t usually see,” he said.

Chicago implemented a single-use plastic bag tax in 2017, charging 7 cents a bag. Studies have found that the tax in Chicago helped decrease plastic bag use by 28% in the first year.

“It has a negative impact on our water treatment, a negative impact on our environment. Whatever we can do to help reduce that garbage waste is beneficial to the community.”

—  Roscoe Stelford, Woodstock city manager

An Illinois law passed in August will require all state entities to track single-use plastic use and create a plan to decrease their use. The act requires those entities to implement a plan to decrease their single-use plastic use and purchases by 50% by 2031.

Illinois may pass a statewide tax on single-use bags in the future, Stelford said. He hopes Woodstock would be grandfathered into the program, so the city can keep and use the taxes generated, instead of having the money go to the state.

Overall, the city of Woodstock created the tax to help the environment, Stelford said.

“It has a negative impact on our water treatment, a negative impact on our environment. Whatever we can do to help reduce that garbage waste is beneficial to the community.”

A statewide tax on plastic bags was attempted in 2019. It never reached a vote and died in 2021.

The city of Woodstock plans to generate $110,000 from the tax, which will go to the Environmental Management Fund. Last year, the city put in $75,280. The taxes are used to fund a free electronic recycling service that the city provides twice a year to its residents, Stelford said.

“It’s gotten to be very challenging to dispose of electronics properly,” he said.

The next electronic recycling event is Oct. 14 at Woodstock North High School. Woodstock residents can drop off up to five TVs or monitors for free, but there is a fee for nonresidents.

The Environmental Management Fund could provide electric vehicle charging stations and other environmentally friendly projects, but nothing has been finalized, Stelford said.

The Environmental Defenders of McHenry County supported the Woodstock policy and helped draft the ordinance. The Defenders hope other towns will take that ordinance and modify it to work with their specific town, said Destiny Seaton, Environmental Defenders of McHenry County communication and membership specialist.

So far, no other towns in McHenry County are actively pursuing a single-use bag tax.

After Woodstock passed the tax, the Environmental Defenders shifted their goals away from legislation, Seaton said. Now, they are trying to get restaurants and breweries to use compostable materials in place of single-use plastics and increase plastic foam recycling in the county.

“It’s a huge production, it’s a huge effort that’s completely led by volunteers,” she said. “The amount of Styrofoam we collect is unbelievable.”

Styrofoam recycling can be found at the Woodstock Public Works facility, Algonquin Township Road District in Crystal Lake and the Algonquin Public Works facility.

If people do end up using plastic bags, they can be recycled at big box stores and grocery stores in specially marked containers. Bread bags, ziplock bags and newspaper bags also can be recycled there, Seaton said.

“Basically, anything you can poke your fingers through can go into those recycling bins,” Seaton said.

The Environmental Defenders are focusing on educating the community on reducing plastic use in ways other than plastic bags.

“Bring your own cup to Starbucks or take your own takeout container when you go out to eat,” Seaton said. “Even if you forget to bring your bags to the grocery store, just put your groceries in the cart and cart it out to your car. You don’t need that bag.”