Plastic bag ban starts Monday

October 1, 2012

San Luis Obispo County residents need to add reusable bags to their shopping lists or pay 10 cents apiece for paper bags to comply with a new ordinance that goes into effect on Monday.

Following impassioned arguments for and against the use of plastic bags, the San Luis Obispo County Integrated Waste Management Authority in January voted 8-5 to ban plastic bags and require stores to charge for paper bags.

Proponents of the ordinance noted the environmental hazards with plastic bags ending up in waterways, poisoning marine life and polluting landfills. Opponents questioned the safety of reusing cloth bags because bacteria could result in cross contamination and argued against the mandated paper bag charge.

Dozens of U.S. cities and counties now outlaw the use of plastic bags with some also restricting the use of paper bags. In addition, several retailers, such as Whole Foods, voluntarily stopped the use of plastic bags at all of their stores.

 


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Just had my granddaughter send me 16 pounds of plastic bags. Do you know how many bags that is? Thank you SLO. First smoking now bags. You guys are nuts! Please go back to LA or SF where they won’t listen to you. The only thing happy about SLO is watching the moving van with your things driving south or north.


I have several boxes of plastic bags of different sizes. 16 pounds would be approximately 1,000 bags. They should last until stores go back to useing plastic bags.