Orange County Weighs In On the Rising Cost of Plastic Bags

As any child of the 1970s onward knows, a bill hoping to become a law has a long road ahead of it, and Lloyd Levine’s Assembly Bill 2058 is no exception. Having already cleared the State Assembly hurdle, however, and now preparing its case for the Senate floor, the Plastic Bag Bill is already well on its way and ready to make some major changes to California’s economic policy. But, at twenty-five cents a pop, is California ready to change? Yesterday the O.C. Register hit the streets, dipping its political thermometer into Orange County’s pool of residents to find some outlooks and insights on the campaign.

Predictably, thoughts on the matter were mixed. As one woman pointed out, plastic bags aren’t the only petroleum product with prices on the rise:

As Maggie Rios loaded 20 plastic bags into the truck of her car after a trip to a Ralph’s in Anaheim, Rios said she hoped the bill would be defeated: “It’s more money that I would have to spend. As it is, I spend too much money on groceries.”

The 25-cent tax would have added $5 to Rios’ bill of $237.

“That’s $5 too much,” she said. “I could buy a gallon of gas — maybe.”

Others saw the price rise as another exasperating speed bump, courtesy of a greedy political system:

At an Albertsons in Santa Ana, Delfina Carr said a tax would hurt her and her mother, who is on a fixed income. “They (government) have enough money,” Carr said.

Carr suggested an expansion of the law requiring supermarkets to take back and recycle used plastic bags. “I have a lot of bags under my sink,” Carr said. “Why not put more boxes in front of the store and let us bring bags that can be reused?”

Funnily enough, for all intents and purposes, AB 2058 truly is an expansion of 2006’s AB 2249: Plastic Bag Recycling Act, which was also penned by Assemblymember Levine himself. It certainly was an invaluable first step toward a more eco-conscious California, but then the question was asked: can we do better still? Other Orange County citizens seem to think that yes, yes we can, and with the simplest solution at that — reusable bags.

At a Ralph’s in Orange, Janette Wooldridge of Orange said she supported the goal of the tax. “Twenty-five cents is high, but I think more awareness about the environment and plastic bags are a big problem,” Wooldridge said. “I used to work for a grocery store and it costs them quite a bit of money.”

Wooldridge was using plastic bags, but said she uses reusable cloth bags for some of her personal shopping. Some stores, such as Trader Joe’s and IKEA sell the reusable bags and offer a discount on purchases when customers use them.

“I think it would save them (stores) a lot of money,” she said. “And it would save the landfills.”

Even some who hadn’t yet converted mentioned that, in the face of this new proposition, they might be ready to make the switch.

Mike Evron of Santa Ana said the tax would make him switch to cloth bags.

“At 25 cents a bag, it would add up pretty quick,” Evron said. “I don’t think I’d want to pay that.”

The article states that, if all goes well, the bill — and, thusly, the tax — will go into effect in 2011. As said, a long road awaits ahead. By then, will we all be ready to make some changes? Perhaps, at penalty of quarters. But until then, at least some are doing their part not because they have to, but because they can.

Wednesday, June 4th, 2008 at 10:07 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.