Feb 24 - Dana Point One Step Away From Passing Bag and EPS Bans
Earlier this week the Dana Point City Council approved plastic bag and expanded polystyrene (aka eps) container bans at a second reading of the ordinances. A third vote is required before the ordinances are adopted.
The single-use bag ordinance bans plastic bags at all retail and restaurant locations in the city. The Save the Plastic Bag Coalition (STPBC) has threatened to sue on the grounds that Retail Food Code preempts local bag bans in restaurants, but city counsel is not concerned.
According to the Orange County Register, Deputy City Attorney Jennifer Farrell said that STPBC’s claims "would not hold up in court because generally, there are no state statutes that regulate the kind of bags a restaurant provides for takeout food and leftovers."
Some changes were made to the bag ordinance at the February 21 meeting, including a temporary exemption for small businesses to allow them to exhaust their plastic bag supplies. The bag ordinance would go into effect one year after adoption.
The eps ordinance would ban food vendors from distributing eps takeout containers, six months after adoption.
Council members are supportive of these ordinances, which would shift the coastal city of Dana Point closer to becoming a "greener" city and remove detrimental single-use plastic litter from its environment.
Read more about the Dana Point ordinances on our February 8 blog.
Take action on other local bag and eps ordinances on our website. Check back regularly for updates.