Plastic Bag Bans Come to Temecula: One Teen Takes On City Council

The power that teenagers can have over change in the world is often vastly underrated. Caught between childlike idealism and adult activism, they are practically the embodiment of change itself. A few miles north of us in Temecula, CA, one teenager is using her voice and ambition for a noble cause: the end of free disposable plastic bags.

Haley Nilson would love to see the city of Temecula eventually ban the ubiquitous plastic bags used by grocery stories and other local businesses.

But the 15-year-old high school freshman said she knows a sudden ban —- the equivalent of plastic bag cold turkey —- is going to be difficult to enact.

Indeed, total bag bans haven’t been looked on too kindly in most of the United States. Young stalwart Haley has therefore stated, in a presentation she made to the Temecula City Council last night, that she’s willing to compromise with a law that would phase out plastic bags via a mandatory in-store tariff for use, a tactic that has seen much more relative acceptance in these parts. Even so, councilmembers voiced concerns about her methods.

After her presentation, Councilman Jeff Comerchero saluted Haley, calling her presentation “terrific.” But he also challenged her to find a way to get results without new taxes.

“I’d like to see you try and find a way, rather than being punitive, to be supportive,” he said.

Softer tactics have worked to a degree, but are they too small a chip off the iceberg of a problem of plastic bag pollution? Some say even bag tariffs are too soft, when disposable bags could just as easily be banned outright. At any rate, something has to happen soon, and the compromise of a tariff seems like as good a place as any to start.

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 at 10:12 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.