After an Athens County judge overruled Athens’ single-use plastic bag ordinance Aug. 28, local businesses are in limbo until the matter is finalized.
Judge George P. McCarthy of the Court of Common Pleas overturned the ordinance because it violated state law, according to a previous report by The Post. Structurally, the decision pinched the home rule provision, which allows cities to act independently, as long as they follow state law.
According to Theodora Gregg, the adult educator for Athens ReThink Plastics, the organization was disappointed but unsurprised by the decision.
“We recognized that there was a very good chance that this summary judgment would not be in our favor,” Gregg said. “But, we’re planning to continue our work; our work is to educate the public and work with businesses. This ruling does not really change our focus.”
When City Council passed the plastic bag ordinance, the reactions of local businesses varied. For Little Professor Book Center, the ordinance did not change its current bag policy.
According to Nicholas Polsinelli, owner of Little Professor Book Center, the store had not regularly distributed single-use plastic bags since 2021.
“I had stopped using (plastic bags) regularly at the start of the pandemic,” Polsinelli said. “Once the lockdown was lifted, I was talking with some of my more environmentally-minded customers. I started thinking about it a little more and decided we would start to roll back on using plastic bags.”
The ordinance reaffirmed the store’s policy. But since its overturn, he sees no reason to change the policy.
“Most of our local customers approved of our shift away from plastic bags,” Polsinelli said. “I don’t see any particular reason to return to using them.”
However, the ordinance also created hardships for other local businesses.
According to Gene Armes, the general manager of the Ohio University College Book Store, the store suffered a financial loss after the ordinance was passed.
“We tried to find the best, most economical, paper replacement we could make available to our customers, but replacing plastic bags with paper cost us over $8,500 extra per year,” Armes wrote in an email.
Though the costs increased, and the bulkier paper bags required more storage space, the College Book Store continued to provide bags to customers free of cost, according to Armes’ email.
“At the end of the day, I feel we should always provide a suitable bag to every customer who decides to shop our store and needs something to carry their purchase in,” Armes wrote in the email.
After the overturn, returning to plastic is not an easy task for local businesses.
“We can’t really make any type of an immediate switch back to plastic completely, due to having several paper bags in the store,” Armes wrote. “We do plan to make plastic bags available upon request, as long as we have leftover stock.”
However, McCarthy’s overrule is not necessarily the end of the plastic bag ordinance.
City Council voted Tuesday to appeal McCarthy’s decision to the Fourth District Court of Appeals, according to meeting footage. Athens Mayor Steve Patterson supported the appeal at the meeting.
“The law director (should) take this up a level, even if we have to go to the Ohio Supreme Court,” Patterson said. “I think it’s important to us, as a community, to hang on to every ounce of home rule we have.”
As a local business owner, Polsinelli said he supported the appeal as well.
“I don’t really understand the point of the decision to undo the bag ban, but it’s really hard for me to believe a city like Athens wouldn’t want to encourage this kind of environmentally friendly practice,” Polsinelli said.
According to Athens City Law Director Lisa Eliason, the city has 30 days from the date of the Court’s decision to file the appeal. A three-judge panel would then hear the case. Until then, local businesses wait for the final verdict.
“It would also be unwise for us to just immediately go back to ordering plastic bags right away,” Armes said. “There is a chance the ban could be reinstated upon appeal by the city.”
With this hope for the ban to be reinstated, Armes is looking towards potential policy changes.
“We will revisit our paper versus plastic decision once we have a better idea of how the courts are going to ultimately rule on this issue,” Armes wrote.
