Battle of the Plastic Bag Bans Rages on in California Towns

Update 1/31/10: We previously reported that the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition received funding from the American Chemistry Council. We have since learned that the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition is not connected with and doesn't receive funding from the American Chemistry Council. The Coalition is in favor of paper bag fees.

On Tuesday night, the Santa Monica, C.A. City Council voted unanimously to pass a city-wide plastic bag ban. Like other plastic bag bans, the Santa Monica ban completely eliminates plastic bags and places a  10-cent fee on recycled paper bags in order to encourage shoppers to bring reusable bags.

However, the Santa Monica ban differs in some ways from other recent California bans. Santa Monica's ban doesn't just reach large grocery stores. Rather, it extends to all city grocery stores, pharmacies, retailers, and even certified farmers' markets. At first, the ban even extended to non-takeout restaurants, but Save the Plastic Bag Coalition nixed the plan, claiming that the city's language in the ban was too vague.

Santa Monica plans to hand out reusable bags prior to the ban going into effect in September and will enact a "bag share program" so people with extra or unused reusable bags can donate them to people in need of them. Additionally, the city addressed the issue of heavy metals found in some reusable bags by defining "reusables" in their report as not containing toxic substances like lead and cadmium in toxic amounts.

The bullying tactics of Save the Plastic Bag have held Santa Monica's ban captive until an extremely detailed environmental impact report was undertaken. Even after this, the ban faced another hurdle a few months ago when a state proposition was passed that took issue with the ban's 25 cent fee on paper bags. Part of the fee would be kept by grocers, while the rest would go to the city to fund education efforts and reusable bags. The city was then forced to drop their stake in the fee and find alternative funding for their programs involving the ban. The grocers will keep the 10-cent fee on paper bags.

Stephen Joseph, lawyer for Save the Plastic Bag Coalition, spoke out at Tuesday's meeting, insisting that the Pacific "garbage patch" was merely myth and that the group was being painted in a poor light, even arguing to be allowed more time to speak than everyone else.

While the Santa Monica ban was a big win for local environmentalists, Save the Plastic Bag Coalition is poised to destroy another impending bag ban. The Marin County, C.A. Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to pass their plastic bag ban despite the threatened lawsuit from the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition. However, the Coalition claims that banning plastic bags will actually harm the environment, and Stephen Joseph said the group will file a suit against the county within days.

The City of Calabassas, C.A. will consider passing a bag ban next week.

So where is the City of Los Angeles in all of this? It's nowhere to be found. While other municipalities in the state and even the county have moved forward on bag bans, the supposedly forward-thinking, green City of Los Angeles is falling way behind. It's time for Los Angeles to get onboard with this local groundswell of support. Sign our petition, and let L.A. know that you think plastic bags should be banned in the city!

Photo credit: How can I recycle this via Flickr