Yo, Philly: Time to Bag the Plastic Bags

We're delighted to welcome guest blogger Julie Hancher into the PennFuture living room. Julie is author of the must-read Green Philly Blog. Residing in Philly, Julie enjoys drinking local craft beer, long bike rides and playing kickball – sometimes all in one day. Send her your love/hate of plastic bags at @greenphillyblog.

By Julie Hancher

The third time is a charm… or, at least, we hope.

Philadelphia has introduced legislation twice – in 2007 and 2009 – to implement a plastic bag fee. The plastic industry blocked the measures both times.

Since 2009, many U.S. cities – including L.A., San Francisco, Seattle, Washington D.C., Austin, Portland, Aspen AND the Hawaiian islands have all either passed plastic bag fees or bans. Entire countries including South Africa, Ireland, Oman, Ethiopia, China and France have either implemented fees or bans. So what’s the holdup for Philly – and the U.S.?

Opposition

The plastics industry has a pretty sly story at this point. Crying wolf about how fees hurt the low-income population and kills jobs. Arguing that plastic is more environmentally friendly than paper (and even your own reusable bag). 

However, the arguments don’t add up. Quality of life for low-income residents is impacted most by litter and plastic bags. The plastic bag industry refuses to disclose numbers of jobs and percent of business affected in Philadelphia. Industries must adapt to the times – look at the newspaper industry, booksellers, or music. Plus, products such as asbestos or cigarettes -- once regarded safe and commonplace -- had to be replaced by cleaner, healthier alternatives.

Finally, the argument isn’t plastic versus paper – any bill in Philly would likely include a fee on plastic and paper alike. Plastic bags have been around for less than 40 years. People should use reusable bags when they can or refuse a bag when unnecessary. 

So what’s the solution?

2013 is our year.

Logan Welde of the Clean Air Council and I have been working on common-sense plastic bag legislation for the past year. With partners Clean Water Action, PennFuture and PennEnvironment along with other organizations, we are gathering support for a bill in Philadelphia City Council.

How can you help?

The issue of plastic bags is only going to become more important as time passes. You can get involved and make a difference by helping with one of the following:

• Sign the change.org petition to fight plastic bags.

• Like the Reduce Plastic Bags in Philadelphia Facebook page to follow updates.

• Contact – email, call or tweet – your local city councilmember to tell them this issue matters to you – and Philadelphia. 

You're Invited: I Will #ActOnClimate Philadelphia Rally

On Friday, August 16, join local and national leaders to answer President Obama's call to act on climate change. Last year was the hottest on record — the worst drought in generations covered more than half the country; record wildfires swept across western states; and Super Storm Sandy devastated communities in the east. The costs of inaction on climate change are increasing. That's why we need as many people as possible to stand with the president to protect our air, our environment, and our future.

When: Friday, August 16, 2013 at 11 a.m.
Where: The People's Plaza, Independence Mall, 5th and Market Streets, Philadelphia

Confirmed speakers:

• Kenyatta Johnson, Philadelphia City Councilman 
• State Rep. Greg Vitali
• State Rep. Jordan Harris
• Katherine Gajewski, City of Philadelphia's Director of Sustainability 
• John Johnson, President, Transport Workers Union Local #234   
• Ryan Boyer, Business Manager, Laborers' District Council Philadelphia 

You don't wanna miss it!
If you think you can attend, you can RSVP to Andrew Sharp.

Post-Philly collapse, Harrisburg needs to do its job on building codes

In the wake of the tragic building collapse in Philadelphia, building codes are in the news. This summer, Philadelphia City Council and state legislators are holding hearings to look into the collapse and recommend policy changes in the hopes of preventing more tragedies like the one at 22nd and Market. Most of the discussion thus far has centered around demolition practices and regulation.  

But this is not just a demolition issue, nor is it only a Philly issue. We need to have a broader discussion in Harrisburg about modernizing Pennsylvania’s out-of-date building codes – and the dangerous and dysfunctional way we go about updating them. 

One of the best guarantees we have toward safe and energy-efficient buildings is updated state building codes. Unfortunately, changes to the building code update process, made by the state legislature and Gov. Corbett in 2011 -- at the behest of the home building industry -- are preventing updates to building codes. This means that cost-effective industry best practices are being rejected at the expense of health, safety and energy efficiency. 

Emergency personnel respond to a building collapse in downtown Philadelphia, June 5, 2013. (Dino Hazell/AP Photo)

Pennsylvania previously automatically adopted nearly all changes to its state-wide building code every three years as recommended by the International Code Council (ICC). The model codes adopted by the ICC promote safe, sustainable, and resilient structures across most of the U.S. 

But Act 1 of 2011 changed all that. The new law eliminated automatic updating of the codes and required a two-thirds "super majority" vote of the Uniform Construction Code Review and Advisory Council (RAC). Gov. Corbett hand-picked industry members to serve on the RAC, many of whom hold firm to the belief that new codes are too costly and burdensome and should not be adopted. 

The RAC has now become a wreck as the hundreds of changes to the building codes recommended by the 2012 ICC were all rejected. These rejected changes include safety improvements in addition to updated energy codes. Pennsylvania is now building to the 2009, not the 2012, codes. If this process doesn't change, it is unlikely any new code will be adopted in the future.

Even worse, the industry-dominated RAC is now recommending further changes that would make it even harder to update building codes and could even result in rolling back previous code adoption decisions, enabling codes to revert to much older standards -- anchoring our codes in the past in order to protect industry profits into the future. 

Not adopting revised codes every three years puts Pennsylvanians at risk. Code changes respond to advancements in building products, science, and construction and demolition practices that save energy and improve safety. Codes are also updated to respond to specific disasters such as hurricanes and building collapses that help improve structural requirements going forward. 

We will continue to have accidents and preventable disasters until we have a comprehensive, modern building code that reflects the most up-to-date technology and industry best practices – and that discussion starts in Harrisburg.