Plastic Bags Banned In LA County

(11/18/2010)

Supervisors in Los Angeles County, California, have passed an ordinance that bans supermarkets, convenience stores and pharmacies from giving customers single-use plastic bags. The new LA County law, which also requires stores to charge 10 cents for each paper bag, is designed to motivate consumers to purchase environmentally friendly reusable bags.

“Plastic bags are a pollutant,” said Zev Yaroslavsky, a county supervisor who voted for the measure. “They pollute the urban landscape. They are what we call in our county urban tumbleweed.”

The ordinance, which will go into effect next July, will initially impact 67 large supermarkets and pharmacies throughout Los Angeles County, but eventually the ban will cover 1,000 stores. The law only applies, however, to unincorporated areas, meaning stores in the county’s 88 cities, including Los Angeles, will not be affected. Even so, the measure has drawn the ire of critics.

“We believe there are more effective ways of reducing bag litter and waste that do not result in raising grocery costs for families, put at risk hundreds of manufacturing jobs in the Los Angeles area, or require more government bureaucracy,” said Tim Shestek, senior director of state affairs for the American Chemistry Council.

In addition to Malibu and San Francisco, which already have restrictive plastic bag laws, California communities like Santa Monica, Marin, San Jose and Santa Clara also are considering full bans. In August, despite the support of the California assembly and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the California senate fell short of passing a statewide plastic bag ban. The author of that bill, Assembly member Julia Brownley, has said she will reintroduce the measure in the next legislative session.