Banned: bogus produce bags

Here’s a look at a few Capitol Hill-related highlights from Monday’s busy agenda for the weekly meeting of the full Seattle City Council:

• Phony “green” bag ban: Seattle Public Utilities touts it as a “first in the nation” ban. Monday, the full council approved a ban on “misleading green- and brown-tinted non-compostable plastic bags” along with making Seattle’s 5-cent paper bag fee permanent. CHS reported earlier this year on the damage caused to sorting machinery pollution caused by the tinted bags when consumers mistakenly believe they can be tossed in the compost. UPDATE: We didn’t accurately describe the problem with the “misleading” bags. Here’s a note from SPU:
  Thank you for your coverage of Seattle’s bag law report to Council (July 26) and revisions to the Seattle bag law (Oct. 4) There is one statement that we would like to clarify. As we reported to Council in July, single plastic bags that are placed in recycling containers create clogging problems with recycling equipment at the Material Recovery Facility that handles our recyclables. The bag law revisions address a different problem. Plastic bags that are put in composting containers are expensive and difficult to remove from the processed compost, and some fragment such that they can’t be removed. They do not damage compost equipment, but rather, pollute the compost itself.
• $500,000 for Town Hall overhaul: The project to seismically retrofit First Hill’s Town Hall and give the forum a $15 million-plus overhaul got a $500,000 boost as the council approved a budget for the Office of Arts and Culture and lifted a spending proviso on the department. Under the proviso, Town Hall will be reimbursed for $500,000 of its overhaul budget. “Funds will support the renovation of Town Hall’s historic Landmarked facility, including the upgrading of integral building systems, including electrical, plumbing, seismic, security, and energy systems,” the agreement reads. As part of the agreement, Town Hall “will continue to offer over 100,000 deeply discounted tickets (most events are just $5, and many are free) per year” and “will continue to offer heavily subsidized rental rates and production/marketing support to nearly 100 nonprofit presenters per year.” The nonprofit is also being asked “to deliver arts programming in neighborhoods throughout the city, and will empanel neighborhood advisory boards to co-curate this programming.” CHS wrote here about the overhaul project and plans for two 32-story towers to join its First Hill block.
• As expected, the council voted Monday to approve new rules designed to open up Seattle’s Living Building pilot program. Despite a construction boom and Seattle’s environmental leanings, only two Living Buildings exist here — both on Capitol Hill.