Los Alamos sustainability board outlines plastic-bag study and asks council whether to pursue fee or ban

Shannon Blair, chair of the Environmental Sustainability Board, presented the board’s plastic-bag working-group findings on Oct. 21 to the County Council, offering options and cost estimates for a potential local plastic-bag fee or ban.

The working group reviewed national and state experience and interviewed officials from Santa Fe and Las Cruces. Presenters said single-use grocery bags are typically high-density polyethylene (HDPE), can persist in landfills for centuries and fragment into microplastics, and are difficult to recycle in curbside programs. The ESB reported statewide activity: multiple New Mexico municipalities have either bans or fees, and the 2025 legislative session considered House Bill 392 (the single-use plastic bag act), which proponents said could reduce costs to recycling processors.

For Los Alamos specifically, ESB estimated roughly 3,250,000 single-use plastic bags are used annually (about 60,000 per week). The board said the county’s recycling contamination rate was about 17% (most recent audit) and estimated contamination-related charges at roughly $12,000 per year; ESB noted that figure covers all contamination, not only bags. The working group modeled a 10¢ paper-bag fee with 1¢ kept by the retailer and 9¢ retained by the county; applying that fee to 3,250,000 bag uses would yield an estimated $325,000 in gross receipts (presenters characterized the figure as approximate and said distribution between retailer and local uses could be changed). ESB recommended revenue be used for sustainability and waste-reduction efforts.

Presenters described common exemptions used by peer jurisdictions (restaurants, SNAP/EBT purchases, medical uses, small mom-and-pop shops, and nonprofits delivering food) and flagged startup and enforcement costs, retailer compliance challenges, and the need for sustained education. ESB recommended the council provide guidance on whether the board should pursue broader community and business engagement and, if so, what specific questions and methods the board should use.

Councilors voiced varying perspectives: Councilor Hammond urged timely action and said the goal should be to reduce bag use rather than raise revenue; other councilors stressed careful design of exemptions and education. Public comment included Jody Benson of the Sierra Club, who urged either a bag ban or a significant fee, and James Wiernicki, who opposed a ban but supported a fee tied to the external costs of bag use.

ESB asked for direction from the council before launching further outreach to retailers and residents.