Oregon Public Broadcasting

Don't expect a rush of Northwest cities to follow Seattle's lead in imposing a tax on plastic grocery bags. Portland may adopt its own tax later this year. But only one other city appears to be considering it.

Correspondent Doug Nadvornick reports.

That city is Bellingham, Washington. City environmental educator Kim Fedale has been following the debate in Seattle, looking for a guide should Bellingham follow.

Kim Fedale: "Having Seattle do it allows us to see how the stores deal with it, how the infrastructure for the city deals with it and gives us a better idea of how we can implement something like that in our own city."

Fedale doubts that a bag tax would go to the Bellingham City Council before next year.

Other Northwest cities, like Spokane and Boise, are studying what they can do to reduce their energy consumption and carbon emissions.

Boise spokesman Adam Park says his city's panel has opted for incentives over plastic bag taxes.

Adam Park: "One suggestion was to create a bag return program so that people have a place to bring back the bags they've already used and they're also trying to get these stores to encourage customers to bring in reusable bags, the cloth bags that can be used again and again."

"Not on our radar screen" say representatives from Lewiston, Idaho and Yakima, Washington, when describing whether their cities are considering a plastic grocery bag tax.

Lewiston Solid Waste Manager Dan Johnson predicts that for a tax like Seattle's to work in his city, it would have to be authorized by the state.