After Mayor Greg Nickels and the Seattle City Council approved a 20-cent fee on all disposable shopping bags, the Washington Food Industry successfully collected enough signatures on a referendum so that the issue will now go to a public vote this August.

Though the full council has not approved placing the measure on the ballot yet, they will be required to or be found in violation of the City Charter.

"It's disappointing that the polluters, the chemical and plastics industry, put $200,000 into getting signatures so now we have to take a vote," said Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin.

The proposed fee on disposable shopping bags arose from a Seattle Public Utilities study that found significant environmental impacts from the use of paper and plastic disposable bags. The ordinance sought to reduce those impacts and the use of throwaway bags by requiring grocery, convenience and drug store shoppers to pay a 20 cents “Green Fee” for each disposable bag used.

But the ordinance was opposed by the Washington Food Industry who felt the public had not been properly informed about the measure. Other grocery companies complained that the fee could slow check out times and have a negative impact on Seattleites with limited incomes.

City council members who previously approved the ordinance hope the public will vote in support of the fee.

"New ideas are always challenging for people," said Conlin. "But I hope people will look at it and see a way to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and see that this isn’t something we should listen to plastics industry on.”