Plan to eliminate plastics in Fulton County buildings delayed

Fulton has suspended a two-week-old plan to eliminate single-use plastics. AJC FILE PHOTO

Fulton has suspended a two-week-old plan to eliminate single-use plastics. AJC FILE PHOTO

Two weeks after agreeing to eliminate single-use plastics from county buildings, Fulton County commissioners suspended the program, saying they hadn't given it enough thought.

“I’m concerned we acted a little too quickly,” said County Commissioner Liz Hausmann, who had voted in favor of the change.

Hausmann said in an earlier conversation that she worried the move wouldn’t be cost effective, and the county should instead focus on recycling single-use plastics.

VIDEO: More on single-use plastics

Kroger is doing away with single-use plastic bags, replacing them with reusable bags across all stores. “As part of our Zero Hunger | Zero Waste commitment, we are phasing out use-once, throw-it-away plastic bags and transitioning to reusable bags in our stores by 2025." Some experts estimate that 100 billion single-use bags are thrown away every year in the United States. The QFC brand of stores will be the first to lose the bags, followed by all other lines in the family of stores.

Commissioner Bob Ellis said Wednesday that while the proposal may have been well-intended, it had been added to the commissioners’ agenda at the last minute and wasn’t well understood.

The original proposal, approved April 17, called for county buildings to eliminate items including plastic food containers, bags, cups and cutlery by the end of the year.

Commissioners will do more research into the issue and reconsider it in the future.