Dec 16 - LA City Committed to Banning Single-Use Plastic Bags
At this morning’s LA City Council Energy & Environment Committee meeting, Chair Jan Perry validated the City’s commitment to follow through with a 2008 resolution to ban single-use plastic bags. A full council meeting following the committee meeting echoed the support.
The City of Los Angeles is the largest city in California, and second largest in the country. With over 3.5 million people, the city's ordinance would easily double the amount of Californians living in a jurisdiction with a bag ban. See the list of other local bag ordinances.
During the meeting Chair Perry confirmed her support of a plastic bag ban, but did voice some concerns about moving too hastily on the ordinance, which currently proposes to ban both single-use plastic and paper bags.
After hearing testimony from all sides of the issue, from environmental groups in enthusiastic support and opponents concerned about the impacts of reusable bags, to retailers who asked that the ordinance be amended to ban plastic bags and place a charge on paper bags, Perry stated that she wanted to get the ordinance right.
Based on concerns from staff that the ordinance did not have adequate outreach, she asked the Bureau of Sanitation to come up with a 60 day community outreach plan within a month. Perry also directed the City Attorney's Office (CAO) and Chief Legislative Analyst (CLA) provide a fiscal impact report for bag ordinance options within 30 days.
A later meeting that day with the full Council indicated that the majority of Council Members also strongly supported an ordinance banning single-use plastic bags. Council Member Paul Koretz, who introduced the motion earlier this year to ban bags, hoped that the ordinance would be enacted by March 2012, and several other Council Members agreed with him.
Send the Energy and Environment Committee your letter of support here. You can send a letter to the full Council as well, or take action on other plastic pollution ordinances here.
Visit our Campaign to End Single-Use Plastic Bags page for more information on the issue.