LA to ban plastic bags by 2010

The bag fee will mean that all supermarkets must require 20 cents for each paper or plastic bag used. The stores would keep five cents from each bag to cover costs associated with administering the fee, while small stores that gain less than $1m a year will keep the entire fee.

The city will use $1.5m of the estimated $10m annual bag-fee revenue to provide each household with at least one reusable bag.

Opponents of the decision warned that the policy would have a devastating effect on the region’s packaging companies.

Council members said they hoped the ban would urge consumers to begin carrying canvas or reusable bags with them, so that the amount of plastic that pollutes the world’s oceans is reduced.

The ban was proposed by councillor Ed Reyes, who called plastic bags “the graffiti of the LA River,” the Los Angeles Times reported.

Los Angeles City officials estimate that Los Angeles consumers use 2.3 billion plastic bags each year, and, according to the city’s Bureau of Sanitation, an estimated 5% of plastic bags are recycled across the state.

In Seattle, the utilities committee also voted to ban foam food containers, but decided to delay the ban until 2010.

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