McHenry County Blog

Mike Tryon passed a bill to force producers and distributors of plastic bags to start a re-cycling program.

He got spanked by the Chicago Tribune in late April for “heaping regulation” on us, the consumers.

In view of the email I received today, it is no accident that the bill was supported by the companies it would regulate.

June 6th, the Chicago Tribune ran a big article on Mike Tryon’s plastic bag regulation bill.

They obviously viewed it more favorably than the alternative–an outright ban.

Now comes an email, forwarded by Change.org, from Amy Goldberg of Grayslake.

Abby Goldberg of Grayslake holds up a white plastic bag with the word “NO” written on it.

“I never expected that a school project would make me an enemy of giant plastics companies. After all, I’m only 12.

“But when my friends and I learned that Americans throw away 100 billion plastic bags every year, causing huge amounts of litter and pollution, we knew we had to do something. Cities like Austin and Los Angeles have made a huge dent by banning plastic bags, so we started a school project to ban plastic bags in our town, Grayslake, Illinois.

“Things were going really well… until the plastic industry started lobbying for a bill that would prevent people like me in every town in Illinois (except Chicago) from taking actions to reduce plastic bag litter. Seriously?? These corporations have no business telling towns like mine that we can’t make decisions for ourselves.

“The bill — SB 3442 — has already passed the Illinois House and Senate. Our last chance to stop it from becoming law is to convince Governor Pat Quinn to veto it.

“That’s why I started a petition on Change.org asking Governor Quinn to veto SB 3442, the bill that would prevent towns from passing plastic bag bans. Click here to add your name.

“One thing that makes me especially angry is that the American Progressive Bag Alliance, which represents the companies that manufacture plastic bags, has said that SB 3442 could be ‘a model bill’ for all states. That means that they could push their corporate interests all over America, preventing kids like me and towns like mine from taking action to stop pollution.

“Well, the corporations may be afraid of me, but I’m not afraid of them. I know that if thousands of people sign my petition, Governor Quinn will see that the public doesn’t want these big corporations telling our towns what we can and cannot do. And when we win, that veto will be a signal to Big Plastic that they had better not expect to take their bill to other states without a fight.

“Click here to sign my petition asking Governor Quinn to veto the bill that would prevent towns like mine from banning plastic bags.

“Thanks for helping me with my project — and helping all towns fight pollution.”

Shredded plastic bags decorate trees on Pyott Road near the Lake in the Hills Airport.

The Chicago Tribune wrote an editorial on Tuesday that took State Rep. Mike Tryon and State Senator Terry Link to the wood shed.

Criticized as excessive regulation was their plan to cut down on plastic bag waste.

But it “heaps government regulation on a problem best solved by us: consumers,” the editorial writers say.

“It cracks down on the manufacturers of plastic bags, adds new regulations to businesses that use the bags, creates a pile of mandatory reporting requirements and enlists the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency as “Enforcer…”

Here’s how the Tribune summarizes the legislation:

• Require manufacturers of plastic bags and plastic wrap to register annually with the IEPA and pay a $500 fee.
• Require manufacturers of plastic bags to print their company names on the bags.
• Require manufacturers of plastic bags to create and maintain a plan for collecting and recycling plastic bags and submit their plan to the IEPA. That plan must include collection locations and a public education campaign.
• Require manufacturers of plastic bags to submit a report to the IEPA annually with a description of recycling and collection efforts, including weight in pounds of the bags — and plastic wrap — collected.
• [Requires] Retailers — from your local grocer to your Chinese carry-out — would be prohibited from buying plastic bags from manufacturers who aren’t following all the rules.

The editorial concludes:

“It gets worse.

“Retailers — from your local grocer to your Chinese carry-out — would be prohibited from buying plastic bags from manufacturers who aren’t following all the rules.

“You wonder how government gets so big?

“How state statute books grow by the inch each year?

“How spending goes up here and there, everywhere?

“This is how.”

The bill has passed the Illinois Senate and is not in the House.

It’s up to Rep. Tryon to determine what happens to it.

Looking at the Senate Roll Call below, I note that the two Senators representing McHenry County–Pam Althoff and Dan Duffy–voted against the bill.  Chris Lauzen, who represents much of Mike Tryon’s also voted against the legislation.

Plastic bag re-cycling Senate Bill 3442's Senate Roll Call.

That’s the information reported to the Illinois Department of Labor on March 29th.

Diversapack, located at 201 North Prospect Street in Marengo is laying everyone off on May 29th.

The firm manufactures plastic bags and pouches.

You can see the details of the closing below:

The information Diversapack filed about its closing with the Illinois Department of Labor. Click to enlarge.

I’m driving on Spruce Lane after taking my son to South Elementary School and you see above what I saw.

It struck me as humorous enough to go home and get my camera.

If a casino can name itself “Circus Circus,” why can’t my message of the Day be “Recycle, Recycle?”

One that was just one space from home in a game of Parcheesi tonight at the First United Methodist Church of Crystal Lake-sponsored Pack 158 Webelos winter

The Cub Scout in second place at Camp Lakota put all of his water buffalo into their winning spots as I was trying to throw a one on the dice.

My son, who had a tiger that had been sent home, got a five to emerge on the playing board.

As I kept throwing numbers other than one, he progressed around the board.

He got to the final row of spaces.

I kept throwing higher numbers.

No ones.

He got the right number on a die and came in second.

Poor little elephant.

Left out in the cold on the very last space.

Dad was a good sport…

more or less.

Somehow this game was more satisfying than the ones us grandkids used to play in Churchill, Maryland, at the home my mother’s parents retired to when they left the family farm near Barkley.

There were no animals in that game box.

Just different colored plastic token.

And, yes, plastic had been invented in the 1940’s.

One that was just one space from home in a game of Parcheesi tonight at the First United Methodist Church of Crystal Lake-sponsored Pack 158 Webelos winter

The Cub Scout in second place at Camp Lakota put all of his water buffalo into their winning spots as I was trying to throw a one on the dice.

My son, who had a tiger that had been sent home, got a five to emerge on the playing board.

As I kept throwing numbers other than one, he progressed around the board.

He got to the final row of spaces.

I kept throwing higher numbers.

No ones.

He got the right number on a die and came in second.

Poor little elephant.

Left out in the cold on the very last space.

Dad was a good sport…

more or less.

Somehow this game was more satisfying than the ones us grandkids used to play in Churchill, Maryland, at the home my mother’s parents retired to when they left the family farm near Barkley.

There were no animals in that game box.

Just different colored plastic token.

And, yes, plastic had been invented in the 1940’s.