Bozeman, Montana’s, new single-use plastics ordinance made history Election Day by becoming the first citizens’ initiative regulating single-use plastics to appear on a ballot — and pass — in the United States.
Supporters believe it has the potential to significantly reduce plastic pollution, but like a similar ordinance rejected by the Cheyenne City Council in 2023, Bozeman’s plastic ban could still face stiff opposition.
Voters overwhelmingly approved the ordinance in Bozeman 17,698 to 10,157, claiming 64% of the vote. The victory came after months of signature gathering and a lawsuit.
Now, said volunteer Dan Carty, a retired biologist with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Bozeman’s single-use plastics ordinance could face legal challenges from the Montana Attorney General’s office.
In February, the Cottonwood Environmental Law Center sued the state of Montana over provisions in a law that aspired to block local communities from banning single-use plastics.
"A local government cannot exercise any legislative power that is prohibited by the Constitution, statute or its own charter,” the Montana Attorney General’s Office argued.
A District Court judge in Lewis & Clark County dismissed this assertion as "a patently absurd inversion of elementary principles of constitutional supremacy" because Bozeman's plastics ban wasn't enacted by a local government. It was a citizen's ballot initiative.
The state of Montana appealed the case to the Montana Supreme Court.
Carty said the new Bozeman ordinance is lawful because “there's provisions in the Montana Constitution that state all power resides in the people, and the people reserved to themselves the right of initiative and referendum.”
Not Just Plastic Bags
The city of Bozeman and the Plastics Ordinance Working Group are forging ahead toward full implementation of the new rules in May 2025.
Carty and others on the working group will be part of public outreach efforts explaining what the ordinance requires.
It prohibits retail sales establishments from providing single-use carryout bags to customers. Bozeman restaurants also will no longer be allowed to use to-go containers made from polystyrene foam. Polystyrene foam packing peanuts are also banned in Bozeman.
And if a customer wants a plastic straw or stirrer in Bozeman, they’ll have to request one.
In a Thursday statement, the Working Group pointed out that, “Passing this initiative makes Bozeman one of over 500 U.S. municipalities with selective bans on single-use plastics. Plastic waste has known destructive properties, and, as of 2019, microplastics have been found in over half of Montana’s rivers and streams.”
Such bans have the power to “eliminate an average of 300 plastic bags per person per year,” stated the release.
What Happened In Cheyenne?
As with the proposed Cheyenne ordinance, support for the Bozeman ordinance was split between different grocery outlets.
In Cheyenne, stores like Natural Grocers and Sam’s Club already stopped offering plastic bags, and in Bozeman locally owned Town & Country Foods allowed ordinance supporters to gather signatures in their parking lots.
T&C, as it’s known to regular shoppers, also supports a “boomerang bag” program where customers donate reusable grocery bags and make them available at the store’s entrance.
In Cheyenne, the proposed ordinance ultimately failed a City Council vote in August 2023 over concerns about raising costs for consumers.
Cheyenne Councilman Jeff White said some local business owners told him that switching to paper would cost $3,500 to $4,000 more per year.
White said if the economy was in better shape, he would have given more consideration to passing the ordinance.
Another member of the council, Mark Rinne, supported Cheyenne’s proposed ordinance because he’d like to see overall plastic use reduced as a matter of public health.
“I know you all think plastic bags are important, but lord knows what they're doing to our health,” Rinne said. “We do not know, but it cannot be good.”
Supporters of plastic bans like the advocacy group MT Plastic Free cast single-use plastics as the new secondhand smoke. It cites studies that found microplastics inside of plaque taken from human carotid arteries. Those patients had a 450% increased chance of suffering heart attacks and strokes.
And Wildlife
Then there’s the impacts single-use plastics have on wildlife.
They’ve been found in Montana’s Flathead Lake where, according to a study in 2022 from the University of Montana, “They can interfere with the food web because animals like zooplankton and fish may eat them.”
In addition to MT Plastic Free and the Plastics Ordinance Working Group in Bozeman, city staffers are also preparing for the implementation of the ban, likely through its code compliance office.
But volunteers like Dan Carty don’t expect the city to deputize a platoon of plastic bag cops who patrol Bozeman writing tickets.
“We would encourage folks at businesses to do it voluntarily because it's the right thing, not because it's an ordinance,” said Carty. “Most businesses and most people in Bozeman have that ‘can do’ attitude. We'll all adapt quickly and probably even before the ordinance takes effect in May.”
For rogue outliers and repeat offenders, the new Bozeman ordinance imposes a $1,000 fine for a first violation and $2,000 for a second.
David Madison can be reached at david@cowboystatedaily.com.
