City of Malibu Bans Use of Plastic Bags
4 comments so farLA Times yesterday reported the Malibu City Council will soon make plastic bags a thing of history among it’s 13,000 residents and four supermarkets. Larger vendors will have just 6-months to comply while smaller vendors 1year.
The action follows a number of other efforts in California to ban plastic bags. In February, Santa Monica’s City Council voted to draft an ordinance that would ban plastic bags and to consider a fee for paper bags.
In March 2007, San Francisco’s County Board of Supervisors voted to ban non-biodegradable plastic bags at supermarket chains with more than $2 million in annual sales and other major retailers. It was believed to be the first such ban in the country.
Environmental groups hailed Malibu’s ordinance as a model that they hoped others would emulate, to keep the bags from clogging storm drains and drifting to sea, where they can kill marine life.
“Even though there’s only a couple grocery stores in Malibu, the average American is using over 600 plastic bags annually, and so, it makes a big difference,” said Sarah Abramson, director of coastal resources for Heal the Bay, a regional environmental group. “When cities like Malibu take action on these types of issues, it can be held up as a leader for other cities to move forward with similar action.”
Californians use about 19 billion plastic shopping bags annually, and Los Angeles County residents account for about a third of that, according to Heal the Bay. It costs California taxpayers about $25 million a year to collect and dispose of plastic bags, according to Californians Against Waste.
“If you live down here and you take a walk down the beach, or you’re a surfer, the concern is that we’re polluting our waters, ruining our beaches with this pollution,” said Malibu Councilwoman Sharon Barovsky.
Dave Heylen, a spokesman for the California Grocers Assn., a trade group for the food industry, said the ban skirted the real issue: trying to get consumers to change their habits and switch to reusable bags. He said most stores would probably just use paper instead of plastic.
“Our contention is, instead of shifting bag use from one type to another, that we actually put together an effective plan that would [get] these bags out of the waste stream,” Heylen said.
Last summer, a statewide recycling bill went into effect that requires large California grocery stores and pharmacies to collect and recycle plastic bags, and to sell reusable bags.
At the Monday night meeting, Malibu Mayor Pamela Conley Ulich asked the city’s staff to study imposing a fee on paper bags to encourage people to bring reusable bags.
Thursday, May 15th, 2008 at 10:10 am and is filed under The Daily. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Now there is a solution and much better alternative to levying, recycling and reusable canvas grocery bags for those who forgets their canvas bag at home or in the car which is called “BIOPLAST Biodegradable Plastics.”
Bioplast is a manufacturing company of BIOPLAST Branded Biodegradable Garbage Bags and Fridge Bags for the household markets and for the industry as well as Biodegradable Carrier Bags and Vegy Bags for the retail sector using their own patented unique formula of bacteria enzyme base substrate as against starch base as used by other manufacturers world over which is not as strong or durable as polymer (plastic) bags and has a cost addition of 300%-400%. Also starch based products can comprise of genetically modified crops (GM Crops) which contains PLA the substitutes can increase emissions of greenhouse gases on landfill sites and releases Methane which is 23 times more damaging than the C02 that Al and Goreites have demonized and cannot be recycled in Britain. See The Guardian reported on Saturday on “Corn starch based material can damage the environment”;
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/apr/26/waste.pollution
Bioplast is the only Biodegradable technology in the world using bacteria enzyme base substrate which is 100% biodegradable within 6 months after disposal as per ASTM-D 5988-1996 and EN 13432:2000/ISO 14855 standards with the lowest cost addition of 15%-20%.
Bioplast biodegradable products are also compostable and hence enhancing the nutritive value of the remaining soil. All the ingredients of Bioplast biodegradable plastic products are food grade and non-toxic in nature therefore suitable to be in contact with food products.
Bioplast believes that this great innovation will go a long way in preserving the ecological balance around the world which has brought intelligent and affordable solution to the disposal of polyethylene plastic waste problem worldwide.
Now the local and central Governments must ban all non-biodegradable plastic bags and force all the retailers to use ONLY 100% Biodegradable bags in their stores as an alternative to reusable canvas bags which will be the evidence of their sincere concern for the environment and their commitment to tackling the considerable problem of plastic bag waste and the pollution.
“What will you tell your children? Were you part of the Problem or part of the Solution?”
http://www.bioplast.com.tr
Bio-degradable/compostable would be a great alternative to plastic bags — but there’s one huge problem: we don’t have ANY commercial/industrial composting facilities.
If these ‘bio-degradable’ bags go to landfill, they don’t get exposure to the oxygen required to break down…at least that’s my understanding…
Reply to BioPlast:
I have been following your endless blog postings of your claims, why are you so desperate for sales? I think I know why!
Your ’so called’ Bioplast in NOT a Bioplastic, it is NOT certified as biodegradable OR compostable by any of the authorities(OK Compost, BPI, DIN CERTCO) that issue the specifications you claim, in fact the ONLY people that have ‘tested’ your products are YOU!!
Your BioPlast is made from FOSSIL FUEL based plastic, producing millions of tonnes of greenhouse gasses worldwide in manufacturing.
Plastics are proven to attract high levels of poisonous chemicals, and your BioPlast will break down into small particles that after collecting poisonous chemicals, could be taken up by the food chain and poison the eco-system, right up to us.
Your BioPlast is ADDING to greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere, these are the cause of climate change that is linked to increasing crop failures.
The answer is NOT Mr BioPLast and his enzymes !!
The answer is plant based plastics
Plant based plastics ARE biodegradable and compostable(many compostable at home) and certified as such.
Plant based plastics REDUCE greenhouse gases in the atmosphere as the plants grow. Growing more plants for plastic would REDUCE greenhouse gases and help reverse climate change AND crop failures.
One study shows that “every pound of soy-based polymers produced instead of petroleum-based removes 2.1 pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere”.
Another study shows that in manufacture, plant based plastics use 30% less energy and create just 25% of the greenhouse gases that fossil fuel plastics do. Also starch based plastics consume 2190 kg of GHG per tonne of plastic whilst the plants are growing.
If you want plant based plastic bags, made from potato and corn starch, and manufactured in the UK,(and cheaper than Tesco or Sainsburys!) head to:
http://www.comp-bio.co.uk
For the plant based plastic just go to:
http://www.stanelcoplc.com
.
Reply to Natalie
Composting facilities are in place or going in place, check with your local council.
Also it is ONLY PLA that has to be put in an industrial composting facility, the bags that Comp-Bio sell, and Bioplastic that that Stanelco manufactures are compostable AT HOME
You seem to think it’s only bags that give of methane in landfill, actually EVERYTHING does, food and garden waste too!