July 19 - San Mateo County's Efforts for Regional Bag Ban Move Forward
Earlier this month the Pacifica City Council listened to San Mateo County's presentation on a regional plastic bag ban.
The County has been spearheading efforts to enact a region-wide and uniform ban, starting with an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) that will cover its incorporated cities as well as some in neighboring Santa Clara County.
Each city will still have to adopt their own respective ordinances similar to the County's, but the process will be facilitated with their use of the County's EIR. EIRs are costly, time-consuming, and in our opinion, completely unnecessary for an ordinance that restricts single-use bags.
The list of cities covered under the EIR are: Belmont, Brisbane, Burlingame, Campbell, Colma, Cupertino, Daly City, East Palo Alto, Foster City, Half Moon Bay, Los Altos, Los Gatos, Menlo Park, Milpitas, Mountain View, Pacifica, Portola Valley, Redwood City, San Bruno, San Carlos, San Mateo, South San Francisco and Woodside.
According to the Mercury News, the County's ordinance will go to the Board of Supervisors by this October.
The EIR was made available to the public on June 22nd and is now available on the County website. Public comments are due August 6 by 5pm.
We congratulate the County for taking the initiative and paving the way for its incorporated and neighboring cities.
For more on plastic bag pollution, visit our website.
Take action on local plastic bag bans, or write in support of AB 298, the statewide bill to ban bags.