Wichita plastic bag ban study searches for more female and minority voices
A survey, which will influence city decision-making with the future of single-use plastic bags, needs to hear from more women and minorities over whether plastic bags should be banned. Currently the survey is not representative of Wichita’s population, heavily skewing towards perspectives that are male and white.
Developed by Wichita’s Single-Use Plastic Bag Taskforce and researchers from the University of Kansas School of Medicine in Wichita, the survey is being conducted to gauge citizens’ interest in either reducing plastic bag use or banning single-use plastic bags altogether.
The survey asked demographic questions to see if they were representative of Wichita’s demographic. Currently, the survey is not, said Dr. Elizabeth Ablah, professor at the KU School of Medicine in Wichita.
“We have about 800 responses and we know that there are groups that we have not received responses from,” she said.
The Wichita Single-Use Plastic Bag Taskforce was created in February by the Wichita City Council to look into the possibility of banning plastic bags. The survey closes Nov. 6, and results are expected to be presented to the task force in December.
Currently, the survey has 2.5 times the number of males over females and does not represent the Latinx, Black, or Asian community. The taskforce and the researchers are making adjustments, like reaching out to Spanish radio stations to publicize the survey, according to Ablah.
“If it is not representative of the city, then we’ll figure out some next steps for the task force,” Ablah said. “We want it to be as representative as we can, so that we’re able to make the potential implications and considerations of what citizens of Wichita are interested in doing with plastic bags.”
Ablah and Caitlin Castina, a master’s student in public health, will present the survey results to the task force to help members make decisions and recommendations on the future of single use plastic bags in Wichita.
The survey, housed on SurveyMonkey, asks residents how they use plastic and reusable bags, what they do with single-use plastic bags at home and how much they’d be willing to pay for plastic bags at grocery stores to deter the use. You can take the survey at surveymonkey.com/r/plasticbagsCC.
It also asks about other methods or incentives to reduce plastic bag use, such as the money collected from plastic bag sales going to environmental programs, deposits for reusable bags refunded when they’re returned, and checkout lines for “reusable bags only.”
Currently, eight states and several cities, like Boulder, Colorado, have banned single-use plastic bags, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Kansas is among more than half of the country that has not passed legislation on plastic bags.
Updates about the city of Wichita’s Plastic Bag Taskforce can be found on its website or Facebook page.
This story was originally published October 27, 2020 at 3:16 PM.
