Is Logan about to bag its plastic habit?

A proposed ban on plastic bags will be discussed in a public hearing at a Logan Municipal Council meeting on Feb. 5.

The ban was presented to the council on Dec. 18, by Herm Olsen, the council member who is championing the ordinance.

Lorenzo Long, a co-author and avid proponent of the ordinance, was in attendance at that meeting to gauge the proposal’s reception.

“It was discussed between council members,” Long said in reference to the original meeting. “There was no public comment allowed, but the attitudes seemed to be in favor.”

During his opening address, Olsen cited county litter problems as his primary concern. According to Olsen, the site of Cache County’s new landfill, Clarkston, has faced serious issues involving single-use grocery bags.

“They have discovered a problem,” Olsen said during his opening presentation. “And that is the very volatile nature of plastic bags.

If Logan is burdening other communities with its trash, he said, “we ought to do what we can to address that.”

To Olsen and proponents of the ordinance, that means enacting the ban.

Councilman Jess Bradfield, however, was not convinced.

“What’s important to note here,” Bradfield said, “is that the city of Logan has not conducted any research, outreach or education regarding this matter, so we don't even know if this is something Logan needs.”

Bradfield hosted a Facebook poll on Dec. 20 to raise public awareness about the resolution and foster civil discourse.

The poll, which tallied more than 1,000 votes in just a few days, registered a wide margin of support with 69 percent of respondents in favor of the ban.

“It had a large response actually,” Long said. “I was surprised. For me, that means that Jess should be saying yes.”

To Bradfield, however, the poll was not indicative of widespread favorability.

“A Facebook poll is an unscientific approach to measuring public opinion,” Bradfield said, “and I hope no politicians ever base their decisions solely on such methods. Many of the respondents were not from Logan, so I wouldn’t read too much into the poll. But it did start a two-way conversation.”

Poll or no poll, Olsen believes the time to act is now.

Citing the United States Environmental Protection Agency data, he described how Americans annually throw away 100 billion plastic bags, which take 12 million barrels of oil to produce.

The bags will spend the next thousand years sluggishly decomposing and damaging vital ecosystems.

Plastic bags can have less obvious consequences as well.

“There are literally tens of thousands of dollars spent every year on direct landfill litter cleanup costs,” Olsen said.