According to Issa Hamud, Logan City’s environmental director, 60-70% of the plastic waste in Cache County comes from Logan City. This was one of the biggest motivators for Councilmember Herm Olsen’s proposed single-use plastic ban for Logan.
In his final meeting as a councilmember on Tuesday, Olsen’s proposed ordinance was passed — as was approval for a county-wide plastic reduction program spearheaded by the Cache County Solid Waste Advisory Board.
“We started this effort as simply Logan city, trying to speak to the problem of these nasty little, blowing in the wind, getting stuck in the gutter, plastic bags," Olsen said. "But as we proposed it, it also became clear that these plastic bags were not just a city problem; they were a county problem.”
While the city ordinance was passed, Olsen said the ban won’t be implemented until April 22, 2020 in order to give the entire county a chance to adopt the county-wide plastic reduction proposal in March. The county resolution differs from the ordinance as it includes options for merchants to choose from, such as not carrying single-use plastic bags, or, if they choose to provide them, adding a $0.10 charge per bag.
Incoming Logan Councilmember Mark Anderson — who’s also a co-owner of Anderson’s Seed and Garden — said he and his wife have been supportive of the ordinance "from the get-go ... but as a retailer, I feel like it’s nice to have an option to choose, and so I really like the options the county has put together, where you can choose option A, option B — you have a choice, basically,” he said.
Anderson is confident that the county plan will be implemented in March 2020. Olsen said if that plan goes into effect, the city may rescind the ban on plastic bags to allow for the county-wide initiative.
Logan became the third city in the state, after Moab and Park City, to pass a city-wide plastic bag ban. Olsen said if the county-wide reduction plan is approved next year, Cache County would become the first county in the state to implement a county-wide initiative.
