“No matter what anyone's political standing is, when you see an old plastic bag on the side of the road, you want that gone” said Nathan Gracey, a volunteer for Montana Plastic Free working this summer to do just that.
Clipboarded volunteers and paid canvassers have been all over town aiming to collect 25% of Bozeman resident signatures to put a plastic ordinance on the ballot in November.
The ban would prevent businesses including restaurants and grocery stores within city limits from distributing single-use plastic bags and styrofoam containers, and would limit plastic straws and beverage stirrers.
But up until recently, a ballot initiative was illegal.
In 2021, the Montana Legislature passed HB407 a state-wide preemptive ban on bans, not allowing any local governments to regulate the use of certain containers, including plastic bags
Cottonwood Environmental Law Center, based in Bozeman, filed a lawsuit against the bill. A judge ruled in their favor in March of this year.
“So many states had preemptive bans and this is the only one that has been overturned in court nationwide, so that makes Montana really important,” said Dr. Megan Wolff, an environmental health consultant for Cottonwood Law who also works as the health policy director with the national organization, Beyond Plastic.
Wolff has seen first hand the conversation around plastic move from a litter concern to a health concern as more research is done and people learn microplastics are everywhere including inside of us.
“I think people don’t realize that plastic is not inert . That the chemicals that go into making plastic leach out of the plastic," Wolff said.
While the initiative wouldn’t eliminate all plastic, according to Wolff the ban in Bozeman could eliminate 16 million bags over time, which she says is a good start.
