Mar 7 - Dana Point Is 42nd CA Jurisdiction With Bag Ban
Yesterday evening the Dana Point City Council adopted a plastic bag ban in a final vote and reading. The ordinance goes into effect on April 1, 2013 for larger retailers, expanding to all stores by the following October.
Read more about the ordinance on yesterday’s blog. Read an article from the OC Register.
One change was made during the meeting to remove restaurants from the definitions, but all other retailers within City limits remain covered under the ordinance. Considering that the city attorney reportedly had no initial concerns about litigation threats to sue a restaurant bag ban, we hope to see the City of Dana Point and others revisit the issue in the near future.
In our opinion, this is the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition’s latest attempt in a losing battle to slow the growing tide of bag bans. It’s absurd to claim that Retail Food Code preempts the bans when in fact no public health or safety requirements require restaurants to provide carryout plastic bags for any reason, let alone in order to protect public health.
The STPBC recently filed a petition against the City and County of San Francisco for expanding its bag ban to include restaurants. Stay tuned for more as CAW prepares to weigh in on this issue.