Grocers group supports plastic bag ban
By Marc Lifsher, Los Angeles Times
SACRAMENTO — A drive to ban most stores from handing out single-use plastic bags got an important boost Monday when the California Grocers Association announced its support for a bill.
The measure by state Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Pacoima, would prohibit the bags in grocery stores and pharmacies beginning on Jan. 1, 2015. Shoppers would be urged to bring their own reusable cloth or plastic bags or would have the option of paying the actual cost of a paper bag, estimated at 10 cents or less.
Convenience and liquor stores would face the same requirements on Jan. 1, 2016.
An initial hearing on SB405 in the Senate Environmental Quality Committee is set for Wednesday.
The proposal, if it becomes law, would supersede roughly 70 local plastic bag ordinances, such as those in Los Angeles County and the cities of Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Long Beach, Pasadena and West Hollywood.
The South Lake Tahoe City Council this year said it preferred to keep plastic bags, despite a growing trend do the opposite.
“It is time for a statewide single-use plastic bag ban in California,” Padilla said at a Capitol news conference.
Ron Fong, president of the California Grocers Association, said his 400 members back Padilla’s bill because it provides “consistency and predictability for consumers.” Complying with dozens of slightly different city and county laws is complicated and expensive, he said.
Single-use bags are a form of “urban tumbleweed” that fouls creek beds, parks and beaches and is harmful to wildlife and marine animals, environmentalists contend. The bags also are difficult to recycle, with less than 5 percent being repurposed, they said.
“They blow off the face of landfills and out of transfer stations,” said Mark Murray, executive director of Californians Against Waste. “This is a problem product and the best solution is to phase them out.”
Plastic bag manufacturers counter that their products are made of 100 percent recyclable material that is regularly reused by consumers. Light-weight plastic bags take up less room than paper bags in landfills and account for only 2 percent of all litter, said a fact sheet from a trade group called the American Progressive Bag Alliance.
Padilla’s proposal is not the only one dealing with single-use plastic bags this legislative session. A rival one by Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, would put a 5-cent tax on all single-use plastic and paper shopping bags.
They only care about one thing which is money. You bring your own bag, they save money. That’s the bottom line.
Tahoeadvocate, doesn’t that work out in some small way to win-win business?
One more than one occasion I have been in the Reno Walmart and been in line behind people who have driven down from Truckee / Tahoe to shop. Often they have brought there own reusable bags. Sure slows down the checkout as they try to bypass the spinning rack of plastic to load into the reusable bags.
the stores will need to create some new type loading system at the check out Counters.
I can deal with whatever.
When I buy product from a store I expect them to provide me with a functional container to carry it home. I WILL NOT PAY FOR IT.
I am getting old cuz I remember when CA banned Paper bags and pushed the new plastic bags (To save the Tree’s)
I guess I am a bit cynical expecting anything the government mandated or is involved in to become a Cluster !@#$
Glad I live and Shop in Nevada.
About time. Bring a reusable bag with you. Age has nothing to do with accepting change and this is a change for the best. Less litter, less dependency on foreign oil (yes, plastic is a petrolium product!)
Every year, plastic pollution is directly responsible for killing millions of birds and fish, plus over 100,000 marine mammals each year.
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/natural-sciences/ioc-oceans/priority-areas/rio-20-ocean/blueprint-for-the-future-we-want/marine-pollution/facts-and-figures-on-marine-pollution/
I’m definitely in favor of reducing single-use plastic bag use, recycling and doing everything possible to foster a cleaner, greener environment. If you have to wait an extra few minutes in line while people bag their purchases, isn’t the health of the planet worth it?
Glad Mr.Lifsher included comments about the wind carrying proliferating plastic bags out of landfills, across meadows, entangled in trees & brush, etc., etc. . .
There are currently over 800,000,000,000 (just shy of a trillion) plastic bags manufactured per year (every year)- enough that too many are now accumulating in all of our water sources as they do not break down. . .
And yet the City Council thinks that Clean Tahoe is all we need; that everything is fine as is… is Clean Tahoe going to go out in the woods and gather those up, too (?) . . .I think not !
This is as much a moral issue as it is an intelligent answer to unintended consequences, which are now too large to ignore for the ubiquitous plastic bag. . .
plastic fish for dinner, anyone ?
This is a great thing and for the whiners out there that think its a big bother, bo ho ho….
reusable bags are easy!!!!