Environment
LA to ban plastic bags by 2010
The Los Angeles City Council has voted to ban plastic carrier bags by 2010, unless the state of California imposes a 25-cent fee on the customers who request them.
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.
LA: opponents of the ban warned about the devastating effect it will have on local packaging companies
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Comments
Pack Man - 25 July 2008
I think the US needs to think about doing something about the cars on their roads as well.
Again proof of why packaging is criticised - it is perceived to be someone else's problem.
Most people love to be green as long as they don't have to change, or pay more to do it.
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