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Ohio’s attorney general is suing the city of Athens to stop its new plastic bag ban
By: David Forster
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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) — The state is suing the city of Athens to stop its ban on single-use plastic bags, which took effect Monday.
The lawsuit has been assigned to Athens County Court of Common Pleas Judge Patrick Lang. The attorney general is asking the judge to declare the ban unconstitutional and prohibit the city from continuing to enforce it.
In 2021, the Ohio Legislature tucked language into the state budget bill that guarantees stores the right to use plastic bags for their customers.
In May 2023, the Athens City Council passed an ordinance banning stores from using plastic bags, effective at the start of the new year. Stores that violate the ban can be fined $150, and if they don’t pay they can be cited for a minor misdemeanor.
Cities in Ohio have what is known as home rule, which allows them to pass their own laws provided they do not conflict with state law. The attorney general’s lawsuit argues the city of Athens overstepped its authority.
The lawsuit also claims the plastic bag ban “will be detrimental to the city’s stores and vendors” and cites comments local merchants made to WOUB early last year when the ordinance was under consideration.
“To ban the transfer and sale of single-use plastic bags by stores and vendors and to criminalize such conduct violates the Ohio Constitution, infringes on the rights of its citizens, and causes irreparable harm,” the lawsuit alleges.
One issue the judge will confront is whether the language passed by the Legislature in 2021 was simply an effort to limit the home rule authority of cities to pass their own laws — in this case plastic bag bans. The Ohio Supreme Court has said the state cannot do this.
The attorney general argues the state law passes the test because “it prescribes what types of containers are permissible in Ohio to use for the purpose of commerce, rather than a mere attempt to limit municipalities’ power to set forth their own police, sanitary, or similar regulations.”
The City Council will discuss the lawsuit tonight in executive session, said Councilmember Alan Swank, who introduced the ordinance banning plastic bags.
“This is clearly another example of state leadership overstepping its bounds and essentially ignoring the will of the people,” Swank said of the lawsuit.
Before plastic bags came around, stores used paper bags and will get used to using them again, Swank said, although he acknowledged it is an adjustment.
“Any time there’s a change there are going to be people who are uncomfortable with it,” Swank said. He compared the bag ban to when Ohio voters banned smoking in public places. Tavern owners at the time said this would put them out of business, he said, but it didn’t. “People will get used to the change,” he said.