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Lawsuit filed against plastic bag ban

February 3, 2012

A pro-plastic bag coalition filed a suit on Thursday in San Luis Obispo County’s Superior Court attempting to set aside the recently approved-county anti-plastic bag ordinance. [Tribune]

On behalf of the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition, attorney Stephen L. Joseph argues that the vote of the Integrated Waste Management Authority that enacted the ordinance should be set aside because the group did not complete an environmental impact report. The coalition also contends that the vote of Greg O’Sullivan, a member of the Templeton Community Services District board of directors, was not in line with his district which voted 3-2 to oppose the ordinance.

O’Sullivan disagrees noting that he also represents seven other incorporated cities in the area.

Critics of the coalition argue the group is funded by the plastics industry.

Stephen Joseph, the attorney for the coalition, contends his client is a nonprofit environmental group.

During the past five years, following in step with San Francisco in 2007, about a dozen cities and counties have adopted similar anti-plastic bag ordinances.

In addition to SLO County, the coalition also filed lawsuits against plastic bag bans in Marin and Santa Cruz counties, and the cities of Manhattan Beach and Long Beach.

The lawsuit is slated to be heard on March 22 in San Luis Obispo County Superior Court.


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I guess the fundamental question is…how did America ever manage without plastic bags?

How did we build Hoover Dam, or the Golden Gate Bridge, or the Empire State Building or the Interstate Highway system? How did we survive the Great Depression? What about WW! and WW!!?

America’s unwillingness to sacrifice ANYTHING in the name of “freedom” is about as un-American as it gets.


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Since very few of us are subscribing to the TRIB any longer, how are we to clean up our dog waste with no more plastic bags??? I’d rather have plastic bags than a ton of DOG DROPPINGS any day of the week…


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I keep finding a smear of dog poo on my paper under the byline of “Bob Cuddy”. It’s weird!


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What are we going to do without plastic bags? I can’t get car sick and barf in a plastic bag anymore. I can’t keep my parks clean and pick up my dogs “presents” that he leaves on the lawn. I can’t go to my favoirite chineese resturant for takeout anymore cuz they won’t have plastic bags for my styrofoam containers (oops, they will probably go too). Maybe I’ll just bring my own ceramic dishes for them to fill up. We can’t clean up the highways with those large red plastic bags anymore. I won’t be able to use plastic bags in my trash cans anymore, instead I will have to wash them out weekly and waste hundreds of gallons of water in doing so. I won’t be able to give my wife a Mother’s Day present in a plastic bag anymore, I’ll have to waste a tree and wrap it with paper. When it rains my newspaper will be a soggy mess and I’ll have to turn on the heat, wasting electricity created by that arch enemy, PG&E and Diablo Canyon, to dry it out before I can read it. I’ll have to go out and buy a real rain hat, probably made in China, thus increasing our trade deficit. And the list goes on. I think I’ll just put a plastic bag over my head and end it all. Oh, I can’t even do that, they took all my plastic bags away :–)


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“What are we going to do without plastic bags?”


You’ll survive


” I can’t get car sick and barf in a plastic bag anymore.”


Seeing that most of the plastic grocery bags have holes in the bottom of them I wouldn’t recommend that anyway.


“I can’t keep my parks clean and pick up my dogs “presents” that he leaves on the lawn.”


Most parks have doo doo bags and in many cases they’re biodegradable. If not then use your old produce bags, they’re not part of this ban.


“I can’t go to my favoirite chineese resturant for takeout anymore cuz they won’t have plastic bags for my styrofoam containers (oops, they will probably go too). Maybe I’ll just bring my own ceramic dishes for them to fill up.”


Good idea, you could be trend setter!


“We can’t clean up the highways with those large red plastic bags anymore.”


This ban doesn’t include those bags.


“I won’t be able to use plastic bags in my trash cans anymore, instead I will have to wash them out weekly and waste hundreds of gallons of water in doing so.”


This ban doesn’t include those either.


“I won’t be able to give my wife a Mother’s Day present in a plastic bag anymore, I’ll have to waste a tree and wrap it with paper.”


Do what my family does. We use old newspapers and those grocery ads that come in the mail, they work great. As long as you don’t give your wife a piece of cr@p thoughtless gift she won’t mind at all.


“When it rains my newspaper will be a soggy mess and I’ll have to turn on the heat, wasting electricity created by that arch enemy, PG&E and Diablo Canyon, to dry it out before I can read it.”


Those bags aren’t included in this ban.


“I’ll have to go out and buy a real rain hat, probably made in China, thus increasing our trade deficit.”


Everyone should have a good rain hat, I might suggest the fair trade store in SLO. But if it’s raining wouldn’t you have to go out in the rain to get your newspaper anyway, even if it’s in a plastic bag?


“And the list goes on. I think I’ll just put a plastic bag over my head and end it all. Oh, I can’t even do that, they took all my plastic bags away :–)”


Darn, as I said those bags have holes in them :( Better yet, use a regular garbage bag, they don’t have holes, they’re plastic and they’re not banned, it’s a win win for everyone :)


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Of course this is all bull, its so ridiculous maybe its a toungue in cheek comment. We will always be able to buy bags for whatever use we have. What all the anti ban writers are ignoring is the damage the huge amount of thrown away bags are causing. Be a good steward; think, and do what is right rather than whining about minor inconvenience.


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I only throw a few bags away at a time. Usually one every few days. I place them in other people’s trash cans. That way no one can blame me. Great place to throw things away is the trash cans at the Atascadero High School parking lot.


I think that’s the right thing to do.


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TONGUE IN CHEEK? HELLO! I guess Typoqueen must think I’m serious as she has a rebuttal for every instance of using plastic bags. Wow, if life is always that serious, what’s the point of living. Lighten up guys & gals. One volcanic eruption spews enough particulate matter in the atmosphere to equal all the plastic bags ever created. Now tell me we need a law to ban eruptions too!


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Oh man!! I just went out and bought myself a half dozen reuseable bags. Yes I know I can still use. It’s called humor.


Found some on Ebay, price wasn’t bad.


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To “Save the Earth”, you know you can toss the plastic bags in the blue recycle bin.


Grocery stores pay 2 cents per bag and now want to charge you 10 cents per bag? An 80% profit isn’t too bad for a business. Who’s really behind the “Ban the Bag”? If this wasn’t a money making push from the big corporations, then you wouldn’t even be able to BUY a plastic bag IF IT WAS TRULY BANNED, would you? Hmm, ban the bag but you can have it if you’re stupid enough to pay to pollute. The corporations come out with a new profit scam and are laughing all the way to the bank. SUCKERS!


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Do the math. That is 400% profit. Maybe you work for the government? Or don’t we all?


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Well, you can toss the plastic bags in the blue recycle bin but you’re not supposed to.


The rest of this post is just a bunch of nonesense as well.


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“Grocery stores pay 2 cents per bag and now want to charge you 10 cents per bag?” Can you provide evidence that the large paper bags, usually referred to as a “1/6 barrel bag” only costs 2 cents each? A quick online search pulled up one link offering a bale of 400 bags for over $60, making them just over 15 cents each. And the grocery stores and not “choosing” to charge 10 cents; that part is mandated as a minimum, they can, if they want to, charge you more than the 10 cent amount. Also, throwing your plastic bags into your blue recycling bin is actually making the problem worse since the plastic bag is not able to be recycled like most other recyclable items. Please notice when you go into a regular grocery store that they usually have a bin set aside for the recycling of the plastic grocery bags. The only corporations that are trying to scam anyone are the plastic bag makers who are in league with the oil companies.


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Paying for a bag is an incentive for shoppers to remember to bring their own bags.


I don’t think stores will re-sell the bags. It would cost more to wash and disinfect them than 8 cents. Again, the 2 cents stores are paying is an incentive for people to switch to bags that will last longer and won’t fly around the county, ending up festooning our majestic oak trees.


Better yet, turn those old two-handled shopping bags into lovely items. http://tinyurl.com/3zdmd3


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