By Gretchen Wehmhoff

Skagway Civic Affairs Committee, at their March 14 meeting,  revisited the topic of managing plastic bags in Skagway out of environmental concerns. The discussion picks up from earlier pre-pandemic conversations.

“It’s been a few years now and the pandemic is over. And I just thought it would be a good time to like, reintroduce the topic and see how people feel about it,” said committee chair Alex Waddell.

Various business owners attended to share their perspective and the challenges of single use versus reusable and paper bags, especially during tourism season.

Klondike Electric Bikes and Klondike Gift Supply owner Nichole Goodman has concerns about the practicality of using paper in a wet climate.

“For the majority of my bags, I use a paper bag, a little bit better than plastic bags. But we live in a rainy place and on days when it’s rainy, it’s kind of difficult to hold stuff in a brown paper bag,” Goodman said.

Mickey Luchetti, manager of Corrington gift shops, noted the cost difference between plastic and paper. 

“For our company, the difference between a single-use bag is 12 cents versus a multi-use bag at  $1. Asking our businesses to provide bags that cost $1 For every transaction is cost prohibitive. It would cost us over $50,000 more a year, if we had to provide multi use bags,” Luchetti said.

Luchetti mentioned the advertising and longevity of Skagway bags.

“I feel our bags are not single use because they have our name on them. They say Skagway, they have website information and contact information. Everyone who takes a bag uses that bag to give their gift to their friends and family,” Luchetti said

Suggestions ranged from providing cruise passengers with a Skagway reusable bag as they got off the ship to encouraging guests to utilize their larger bags.

.Other communities in Alaska have added restrictions to bags. The Alaska Department of Environmental Health posted that other communities have established some sort of plastic bag limitations. The website contains links to the local code for each town.

In Anchorage, plastic bags were banned in Anchorage in 2019. Alternative bags were to be paper or a reusable bag. Bags not provided by the consumer have a 10 cent fee per bag with a maximum of 50 cents. There were exceptions, such as plastic bags around meats and vegetables, bags that protected newspapers and more. 

In 2020 Haines enacted an ordinance prohibiting plastic bags that would leave the point of sale with the customer. There are exceptions for bags to be used for produce and leaking frozen or fresh meat.

Goodman suggested assisting customers in choosing to avoid using bags.

“I think that as  business owners, we need to do our part to give people an option if they want a bag or don’t want a bag. Most people, if they have a backpack, will say no, I don’t need a bag and they’ll take their items and put them in the backpack.

Weddel said she would not be forwarding any resolutions to the assembly on the topic, that she had offered the roundtable to give businesses a chance to share their views. She did suggest the Solid Waste Department be a part of the conversation to answer questions and give perspective.