Another Plastic Bag Ban!

San Jose, California has passed an ordinance that becomes effective Jan. 1, 2012 to entirely ban disposable plastic bags in the city of 1 million people. Paper bags will be available—for a fee. It’s the strongest anti-bag legislation in the U.S. to date.

Not only will unsuspecting customers left (not) holding the bag, but , fines of up to $1,000 can be imposed on shops which break the ban. It will affect about 5,000 businesses.

Exempted from the ban are restaurants and nonprofit secondhand stores. Plastic bags used to protect meat, produce or bulk foods, and sandwich bags and trash bags are also exempt.

Proponents of the ban are excited because they consider it an opportunity to lead on an important environmental issue. Emily Utter, policy associate with Save the Bay, said in an interview: "This ordinance is a great step forward and will keep millions of bags out of San Francisco Bay." She and others are hopeful other cities and California will follow suit. Currently, Long Beach, Santa Monica and Santa Cruz were considering laws to restrict plastic bag use. Cities like San Francisco and Washington already restrict plastic bag use.

People who were against the ban included Tim Shestek, the American Chemistry Council's senior director for state affairs (lobbyist for the petroleum industry?), who called the ban was "unfortunate."

Fact or Fiction?
Councilman Pete Constant, who voted against the ban, told the paper that the city had voted to increase "the burden and cost for people in the midst of one of the deepest recessions we've experienced in our lifetime." –San Jose Mercury News

How much of a burden, really, is bringing your own bags? Grab a tote bag from that conference last year. Re-use your sturdy Trader Joe’s handled paper bags. If we are putting burdens on people, it isn’t by making them bring their own bags.

Also from Councilman Constant:
Plastic bags are fully recyclable, and instead of entertaining recycling partnerships and programs, the City Council chose a policy that punishes consumers by raising grocery costs unnecessarily.

We’ve gone over this before in this blog, but do the math: It costs $4,000 to process and recycle one ton of plastic bags, which can be sold on the commodities market for $32. Recycling is in no way cost-effective.