Woodstock brings back 10-cent single-use bag fee

Shoppers in Woodstock will need to remember to grab their reusable bags again before heading into city stores starting Aug. 1, unless they want to cough up few extra dimes for plastic or paper sacks at the cash register.

The Woodstock City Council on Tuesday brought back its 10-cent single-use bag fee charged on bags provided by a retail stores to customers at the point of sale, pickup or delivery.

The policy was first passed in 2019 and started to get collected in 2020, but then was paused by city officials during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It exempts bags provided by a pharmacist that contains a prescription drug, paper bags meant to protect a single fragile or glass-bottled item, and newspaper sleeves, door hanger bags or bags intended for initial use, such as dry cleaning, garbage, pet waste or yard waste bags, among a few other exceptions.

Councilman Tom Nierman was hesitant to bring back the fee without exploring making a change to the program, to perhaps have retailers reward people who consistently bring reusable sacks rather than penalizing people who don’t, while also encouraging more stores to allow bags to be recycled at their properties.

He said he has heard from local retail managers that some employees have been berated by customers over the dime fees.

“People get irate and they’re taking it out on the actual store clerks and cashiers, so I just think maybe we should look at this in a different light. I’m all for recycling, I’m all for eliminating a lot of the bag use, but I think we need to sell it as more of a positive as opposed to a negative,” he said.

Mayor Mike Turner said if that behavior becomes more widespread he may want to revisit the program, but the elected officials ultimately approved the return of the fee in an unanimous decision.

“This is for me as a bit of a libertarian, the perfect tax. You don’t have to pay it. All you have to do is bring a bag,” Turner said.

City staff reported the collections were totaling about $5,000 a month before the program paused during the pandemic.

Councilman Bob Seegers Jr. said as a resident he is irritated by the fee and said residents that think it’s a revenue grab could be convinced city officials mean well with it if stores would offer a nickel back to residents for every bag they returned to recycle.

“If you want to achieve real results, buy the bags back,” Seegers said.

Turner and city staff said such a program may be difficult to manage administratively.

City Manager Roscoe Stelford pointed out bags from stores outside of Woodstock may start getting returned while referencing a “Seinfeld” episode in which Kramer and Newman devise a scheme to drive a load of empty bottles and cans to redeem them in Michigan, where an extra five cents per item was offered to redeemers.