Sacking Regulation or Regulating Sacks? Predicting U.S. State-Level Plastic Bag Bans and Preemption Laws

• In Event: Capital, Communities, and Climate: How Local and Corporate Actors Shape Environmental Futures

Abstract

Single-use plastic shopping bags continue to contribute to the plastic waste crisis. In the absence of federal regulation, states and municipalities have passed bans on plastic bags and charged fees for single-use paper bags. But some states have responded to municipal bans by passing preemption laws prohibiting cities from banning single-use plastic bags. Researchers have viewed statewide bans and preemption laws as being driven by different political processes, and thus have not tested whether the same political and economic factors could predict whether a state will pass a statewide ban or a preemption law. Using an original dataset including updated statewide bans and preemption laws for all 50 states, I tested the predictive power of each state’s miles of coastline, Green Score, economic dependence on plastics manufacturing, state wealth and Democrat control over the state legislature. Results from binomial logistic regression analyses illustrate that a state’s commitment to environmental protection, economic dependence on plastics manufacturing and partisan politics are important influences on whether a state will act to reduce plastic bag use or act to block its municipalities from reducing it.

Author

• Diane M. Sicotte, Drexel University