Progressive Bag Alliance

This article is part of the Center for Media & Democracy's spotlight on front groups and corporate spin.

The Progressive Bag Alliance (PBA) was founded in 2005 and is a group of American plastic bag manufacturers who advocate recycling plastic shopping bags as an alternative to banning the bags. Recently, a growing number of municipalities, states and countries have been enacting legislation banning plastic bags as a way to cut plastic bag pollution in cities, landfills and waterways. The effort to reduce the use of plastic bags has even become chic, as reusable bags created by fashion designer Anya Hindmarch and emblazoned with the slogan, "I am not a plastic bag" have been selling out as fast as they are made.

While PBA does not offer a street address on its Web site, in its newsletters or press releases, some newsletters available on its web site bear the address "PBA c/o Edelman, 1500 Broadway, New York, NY 10036", indicating PBA is set up and operated by the Daniel J. Edelman, Inc., a large independent public relations firm.

Strategies and tactics

The Progressive Bag Alliance seems to have adopted a number of public relations strategies to head off plastic bag bans that were first employed by the Tobacco industry to head off smoking bans, specifically:

1) Shifting the focus of the discussion: The PBA portrays laws banning plastic shopping bags as unreasonably limiting consumer choice. In its statements and press releases, it attempts to limit discussion to one of plastic versus paper bags, focusing on paper as the only viable alternative to plastic bags, and saying paper uses more environmental resources to produce. PBA avoids mentioning or discussing the use of cloth or other types of non-disposable bags. PBA also works to shift the focus off of plastic bags and onto human behavior as the central problem, saying "While care for the environment is critical, solutions that consider consumer lifestyle and freedom of choice are essential to encourage long-lasting behavioral change."

2) Promoting weaker measures and delaying more effective legislation: The Progressive Bag Alliance backed a weak California recycling bill, AB 2449, passed in 2007, which required supermarkets, pharmacies and other major retail outlets of over 10,000 square feet and that have over $2 million or more in annual sales to provide bins where customers can recycle their plastic grocery bags. However, the law does not provide incentives for people to change their behavior regarding plastic bags; it does not mandate that consumers recycle their bags, nor does it require a deposit on bags or provide other incentive to consumers to recycle them.

PBA seems to advance such weak mandatory recycling proposals as a way to head off more stringent proposals. In July, 2007 the PBA worked to derail a proposal in Annapolis, Maryland to ban plastic shopping bags. After a strict ban on plastic bags was proposed for virtually all Annapolis retail outlets to help protect the area's waterways and marine life, the city's Mayor, Ellen Moyer, introduced a revised version of the measure that largely avoided the issue of plastic bag litter and instead suggested further studies be conducted by an environmental review committee into using recyclable and reusable products rather than imposing a ban.

3) Suing cities that enact plastic bag bans, as a way to slow the spread of such legislation: The Plastic Bag Alliance is also a member of the Coalition to Support Plastic Bag Recycling, a local front group that appeared in California shortly after cities in the San Francisco Bay area started passing ordinances banning plastic shopping bags. The Coalition brought a lawsuit against the small town of Fairfax, California, to stop its ban. The suit was effective in causing Fairfax to reverse its course and make stopping use of the bans voluntary.

Member companies of PBA

• Advance Polybag (sales offices in Chicago, Columbus, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and New Orleans)
  
• Inteplast (Livingston, New Jersey)
  
• Superbag (Houston, Texas)
  

Board

Isaac Bazbaz, Chair
Joe Chen, Inteplast
Hank Nguyen, Advance Polybag

Contact

Progressive Bag Alliance
Web site: http://www.progressivebagalliance.com/
Email: infoATprogressivebagalliance.com (Substitute an "@" sign for the "AT")

Progressive Bag Alliance
c/o Daniel J. Edelman, Inc. Public Relations
1500 Broadway
New York, NY 10036