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SLO County’s proposed bag ban moving forward

July 18, 2011

Single-use paper and plastic bags could be banned at San Luis Obispo County’s larger grocery stores as early as Jan. 1, 2013, under an ordinance proposed by the county’s Integrated Waste Management Authority.

At an authority meeting last week, board members agreed the proposed ordinance would outlaw single-use plastic and paper bags at large grocery stores beginning in Jan. 2013, and then over a year long period, phase in all county businesses including dry cleaners. An exemption would be made for pharmaceuticals.

The board plans to continue refining the ordinance with a draft to go before the board on Sept. 14.

The proposal also requires that county retail stores sell reusable bags.

Proponents of the ordinance say plastic bags are an environmental hazard — ending up in waterways, poisoning marine life and polluting landfills.

The Atascadero City Council came to a consensus that it is against the proposed ordinance because some people may not be able to afford the reusable bags. In addition, councilman Jerry Clay noted plastic bags come in handy at dog parks.

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.

On Thursday, the California Supreme Court upheld the right of cities to ban plastic bags in a unanimous decision called a victory by environmentalists. The court ruled that local governments can ban plastic bags without conducting a full-scale environmental review.

Even so, a lawyer for plastic bag makers said the manufacturers would continue to sue municipalities that impose bans without environmental impact reports, the Los Angeles Times said.


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I have deleted a comment or two,mostly trash talk between users.

Please focus your comment on the topic of the story and not at other users

disagree without being disagreeable

thank you, questions Email please

be nice, life is short.

this word “honey,” do not use it when addressing women who post here. thank you.


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I seem to remember that we voted on this issue and the plastic bag won… so they-who-shall-not-be-named are sneaking this ordinance under the radar.


Another case of sticking it up the citizens proverbial …ah… ‘nose’ by our politicians. They need to get back to work and bring back the economy… or do they think they are helping?


So, I guess the folks who sell plastic bags in bulk ( like those at smart and final) will benefit from this legislation… funny how ‘unintended consequences” work.


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And I understand that if you get caught using ‘paper or plastic’ the bail will be $200,000.


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BY THE WAY… There was a whole slew of special interests at this meeting lobbying in favor of this ban.


THEY WERE GIVING GIFTS TO THE BOARD RIGHT IN PLAIN DAYLIGHT!!! Chocolate chip cookies for each board member, and also their very own cloth grocery bag so they could be high-minded and better than everyone else.


Small gifts, sure, but really??? Giving gifts out just prior to a vote??? WHAT THE???


So, if you want to contact your council or Board of Supervisors, make sure you ask them what gifts they’d like in order to vote with you next time. Corrupt bunch.


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Say it ain’t so!? You mean our happy little area has dirt bags in high office? What’s next, corrupt public safety?


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It seems the vote-buyers are reading (and voting down). Sorry that I offended your vote-buying sensibilities.


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I think the voting down was more about humor, sometimes you just have to laugh, if you get my point. Really though, people need to get out to the meetings, otherwise the lobbyist end up speaking for everyone. I live in A-Town where we get to keep our bags and I feel sorry for the rest of the folks that have to keep up after these so called “do gooders” with all their bright ideas. What we need is education, not eradication.


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Well, you obviously have a closed mind. There are others who are much smarter than you that will tell you what is good for you. No back off the kicking and screaming and come quietly…


/sarcasm


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“Well, you obviously have a closed mind. There are others who are much smarter than you that will tell you what is good for you”


Now you’re catching on.


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Tell the Integrated Waste Management Authority what you think about this nonsense:


Mail:

870 Osos Street

San Luis Obispo, California 93401-2717


Telephone:

(805) 782-8530


Fax:

(805) 782-8529


Email:

iwma@iwma.com


Let’s not allow these jokers pull this stuff without our doing some kicking and screaming!


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The IWMA is the entire Board of Supervisors, and council members from each city.


Thus, the strongest sentiment should be directed to your local city council—there are four persons on your council that may disagree with the one representative and force them to vote differently.


Next, speak out to the Board of Supervisors and the IWMA.


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I know that your minds are closed but if any of you want to learn something (doubt it) then watch this video. OMG I feel like I’m talking with brain washed robots. The video won’t hurt you, it’s not going to turn you into liberals, open your mind, step off of the party platform for just a few minutes:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7rNYzSH-BA


There is more plastic in the North Pacific Gyro AKA Trash Island than there is life. Plastic out numbers plankton 6 to 1. This trash island is TWICE the size of Texas! How can anyone with a conscience allow this to continue. Why do you have kill off everything in sight?


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Sorry,Typo, I can’t open my mind long enough to click your link …


Nevertheless, the problem isn’t the bags themselves, it is their location (in trees or in seabirds or around turtles or whatever). The solution, then, is to limit abusers of the bags, ie the litterers, or other doers of nefarious ill.


This regulation penalizes me, even though I am a good bag user, and operate my bags responsibly.


I am surprised you came out on the side of redlining an entire group of people (bag users) in order to limit the activities of a smaller subset of the group (bag abusers).


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Racket, I’d love to hear your plan to limit abusers of the bags. You might take care of your bags just fine…until they blow out of the garbage truck that just picked up your garbage or recycling.


Sometimes the government needs to ban certain things in order to protect the environment. DDT comes to mind. Sometimes they have to ban something because a small population screws it up for the rest of us. I.e. motorcycle helmets, seat belts, etc, etc.


Maybe banning them is a bit extreme. Why not charge $0.25 each for them and use the money to bolster the recycling program or to prosecute litterers. Either way, something needs to change. I bet if you walked any 1/4 mile stretch of road in the county, you will find at least one plastic grocery bag. If that’s not a problem, I don’t know what is.


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Paso, what are you talking about?


Surely the great preponderance of all rapists/killers had mothers’ milk at an early stage. Do we ban that, or do we solve the problem?


All drunk drivers drink, do we ban alcohol?


All scumbag lawyers who milk the system have taken at least a sip of water in their life. Do we ban water?


I expect nincompoopery from my friend Typo, but, you too?


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Racket, your reply makes absolutely zero sense. Mothers milk doesn’t cause people to be murderers, etc, etc. Stick to the subject at hand here. The issue is plastic bags. You must either think one of two things (or both maybe)

1. Plastics bags aren’t an environmental problem (both on the production side and the post-consumer side)

2. You honestly think that a couple of public service ads will get everyone to quit throwing bags into the environment.


There are a couple of problems here. There are 500 billion plastic bags used every year. Of all the ones that end up in the ocean and on the sides of our roads, I’m willing to bet that less than 10% of them are there by an act of littering, the rest probably are there from blowing out the back of a pickup truck, blowing out of a garbage truck, or blowing around your yard when one gets away from you.


The only solution I see to this problem is either:

1. Quit making the damn bags

2. Make them out of lead so they don’t blow around.


I know you don’t agree with me on this, but please (i’m truly interested in hearing the other side of the story) what do you suggest we do to eliminate the problem of billions of plastic bags clogging our oceans and streams?


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“Sorry,Typo, I can’t open my mind long enough to click your link”


And that doesn’t surprise me, I’d be more surprised if any of you did click on that link. That’s the difference between the right and the left. Most of us (Libs) like to have ALL the facts before we argue an issue instead of just one side. I probably watch Faux con shows more than any of you watch any liberal leaning shows because I like to be well rounded and make balanced judgements.


Oh well, can’t have an educated discussion with those that are uneducated.


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“Most of us (Libs) like to have ALL the facts before we argue an issue instead of just one side.”


Typo, honey, I seem to remember one of the queen liberals Nancy Pelosi) saying we must pass Obamacare so we can see whats in it.


I guess she is the exception


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I watched the video. I loved the ominous sound track. I didn’t see one plastic grocery bag.


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Did you see the glass full of tiny particles and that gloopy stuff? Much of the plastics including plastic bags have turned into a goopy sludgy unidentifiable mess. But their are other videos that show bags. As someone else said, you’d be hard pressed to drive a few miles on the fwy without seeing at least one. But thanks for at least watching the video. I hope that it at least had some effect on you.


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Oh typoqueen,


Do you tell your friends that you are ‘animal rights correct’? “dolphin safe tuna correct?” “no-fur correct” …. my guess you don’t realize how your friends dictate your opinion… and I am sure you don’t cross them. I am sure that you are totally unaware of the social aggressive behavior of your friends keeping you in line.


You really aren’t thinking outside of the box after all.


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Okay, watched it. Here are a couple of issues I have with the video. Number 1 the video is talking about plastics in general, not plastic grocery bags. If plastic photodegrades then the thin plastic bags should be gone in a matter of a few years. Second, this phenomena of super-pollution, if we can call it that, occurs in one of the remotest parts of the world. Maybe it is the ocean’s dumping ground. The earth is taking care of us once again. Finally, plankton is not evenly distributed around the world. When we talk about ratios of plastic to plankton, how does this section, “twice the size of Texas,” compare to the average plankton level in the entire ocean? Honestly, when you think about the area of the oceans of the world, twice the size of Texas is still a drop in the bucket.


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Sorry, should have been most remote instead of “remotest.”


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Monkscrew, the problem is that grocery bags actually degrade really slowly. They don’t degrade at the same rate as other types of plastic which in themselves degrade very slowly. If you look on the recycle label on the plastic bottle or bag there’s a number. Grocery bags have a different number then most other plastics. That’s because of the high petroleum content. That is why despite what Cindy says you aren’t supposed to put grocery bags in the curb side recycle bin. They aren’t as manageable and are much harder to recycle. BTW there are ways to make plastic bags and they do have plastic bags that aren’t quite as bad as grocery bags but it all comes down to cost.


I’m pretty surprised that you don’t find that toxic mess which is twice the size of Texas disturbing. But that’s not the only place like that. There are other trash islands and there are beaches that are like the Pacific Gyro that are stacked with garbage. Also this plastic isn’t degrading in the ocean, it’s building up and it’s making a gloppy substance that looks almost like dirty gelatin which is actually a fairly new phenomenon. It’s poisoning fish. I’ve seen documentaries that show a lot of dead fish around these trash islands.


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Would this apply to the mutt mitt dog-poop bags they have all over the place now?

Am I supposed to get a re-usable cloth bag to clean my cats’ litter box? That’s what I use the plastic grocery bags for.

I thought most of these bags are made from by-products of corn processing. And why take away paper bags?

I know that these bags are tough on the wildlife especially in the oceans with sea turtles, but isn’t it all our duties to make sure these bags are disposed of properly? And what will they want to ban next?

I’m sure tired of the government treating everyone like children who can’t do anything unless they say it’s OK.


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Atascadero should put a sign up at the 101 A-Town exits that say’s, “WE HAVE GROCERY BAGS”. We will capture all the campers driving through the Central Coast.


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You funny.


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Do we get any royalty income from the majority of the world for the humor we provide? Can you imagine what people traveling through California will think when they stop at a store and are told to get your own bags, we don’t provide no stink’n grocery bags. I have no doubt California leads the world in the category of “most stupid laws imposed on it’s citizens by it’s clueless leaders”.


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