Oakland City Council Passes Ban on Plastic Bags at Point of Sale
Last week I voted with a majority of the City Council to ban the use of plastic carry-out bags at grocery stores and other retail stores which gross more than $1million a year. The ban takes effect in January 2008 and specifically exempts restaurants. Plastic bags will still be OK for take-out food, since it there isn’t another ready alternative to keep liquids from leaking out of food containers. The new ordinance does not affect the plastic bags used to hold vegetables and fruit in the produce sections.
I think the plastic bag ban is a good first step to changing consumer behavior away from one-use disposable plastic, which is causing major environmental problems. Re-usable canvas bags will be sold in grocery stores, and the City will be promoting their use for carrying home groceries. That is already the norm in many countries, but it will definitely require a change of mind and habit for us in America where convenience is king. I am now keeping three canvas bags in my car so they’re handy if I decide to stop at the store. It takes awhile to change our habits, but remembering to bring the canvas or string bags is not that hard once you’ve done it a few times. Paper bags will also still be available in stores, but reusable bags are the real goal. The manufacture of paper bags also has negative environmental consequences, but at least they are compostable, unlike plastic.
One of the key reasons for banning the plastic bags is that they are not recyclable as a practical matter, despite what it might say on the bag. Several recycling companies testified that even if you take your plastic bag back to the store, it is highly unlikely that it will actually be recycled. Though the bags look alike, there are many different “recipes” for making the plastic so they cannot be combined to recycle in the same way. They just get put in the landfill or end up blowing around and ending up in waterways where they choke wildlife. One biologist testified that there is now a higher volume of plastic bags in the ocean than of zoo-plankton.
The plastic bag ban ordinance will take us one step closer to achieving the City’s zero waste goal. To date the City has taken major strides in expanding and improving recycling and composting services. We can easily recycle garden clippings, kitchen scraps, glass, aluminum, newspapers, magazines, cardboard and other paper products, and certain plastic containers. Now that so much can be recycled, my household garbage consists mainly of plastic packaging. That’s a big step forward in the last few years. So, I hope you’ll join me in trying to reduce plastic waste by taking your own bags with you when you shop for food.