CHICAGO – To counter a proposed ban on plastic bags, the Illinois Retail Merchants Association is asking the Chicago City Council to place a tax on paper bags before enacting such a ban, the Chicago Sun Times reports. Alderman Joe Moreno has introduced a new bill that would prohibit any retailer from handing out plastic bags. Last year, Mayor Rahm Emanuel squashed a similar bill that only banned plastic bags at retailers with more than 5,000 square feet.

The association figures a 5 or 10 cent tax on paper bags would be a good way to start changing shopping habits. “If you put a tax on the bag, people will start to think first before they take a bag and bring their own bags so they don’t have to pay anything. The consumer decides whether they want to pay more,” said Tanya Triche, vice president and general counsel for the association.

“If you don’t tax the bag, larger stores are in a better position to absorb the cost and will. But smaller, independent grocers end up raising prices. A lot of lower-income areas are served by independent grocers. Poor people who can least afford it end up paying a premium for an environmental goal,” she told the City Council on Monday.

Moreno agreed with her up to point. “We are not prohibiting any retailer from putting a fee on. If they want to do that, they can. But, what we’re not gonna do is do their bidding [by] putting the tax on for them so they can go to their customers and say, `Don’t blame us. Blame the bad guys down at City Hall,’ “ Moreno said. “Let’s not start there with Chicagoans getting nickel-and-dimed. Let’s start with removing plastic bags as a product in Chicago so we don’t have these things floating all over the place, getting in our lakes and clogging up our sewers.”

Currently, 60 California cities and Seattle, among other locations, ban plastic bags. The council will vote on Moreno’s bill on April 15.