Shoreline Residents to Kick Off Initiative Petition to Repeal Shoreline Plastic Bag Ban

(Editor's Note: The following is a submitted press release) Shoreline, WA (May 16, 2013). Local residents opposed to the City of Shoreline’s recent action banning the distribution of plastic carryout bags are circulating an initiative petition to repeal the ban. Their effort, in partnership with Save Our Choice, an organizer of similar efforts in Seattle and Issaquah, will officially kick off on Saturday, May 18. Signature gatherers will be stationed outside Haggen Northwest Fresh, located at 1201 N 175th Street in Shoreline, between 10:00 am and 5:00 pm. “The City has overstepped its bounds,” said petition co-organizer Tom Jamieson, a Shoreline resident. “This ordinance unjustifiably restrains trade, punishes customers, provides no provable benefit to the environment, and includes no method for measuring reductions in waste or litter. Moreover, reusable bags have not been shown to be in the best interest of the health, safety and welfare of the people of the City of Shoreline.” Ordinance No. 653, which regulates the distribution of plastic and paper carryout bags by Shoreline retail establishments was adopted by the Shoreline City Council on April 29, 2013. The new regulations become effective on February 1, 2014. The initiative petition calls for adoption of a new ordinance prohibiting regulation of the distribution of retail carryout bags; and repealing Shoreline Ordinance No. 653. Approximately 6,000 signatures must be collected by July 13. The City Council would then have to either adopt the new ordinance in its entirety (thereby repealing Ordinance No. 653) or put the question to the voters in the City’s next general election. The Shoreline Initiative Petition is available for download at www.saveourchoice.us For more information or to volunteer, please contact Tom Jamieson at 206-300-7606 or info@saveourchoice.us. Contributions (check, no cash) may be mailed to Save Our Choice, PO Box 16716, Seattle, WA 98116.