Newsflash

Sonoma County Bag Ban Update

“Paper or Plastic?” is so last century…”  so said Tim James of the California Grocers Association, adding, “It’s all about reusable bags now.”  He indicated his association’s support of the county-wide ordinance and encouraged a fee on paper bags. In Washington, D.C. with just a .05 fee on paper and plastic bags, he said consumption of single-use bags went down by about 60%, “nearly instantaneously.”

What the ban would look like and how it might work here: whether this would include produce and bulk bags – the answer seems to be not right away, whether it would include stores such as Wal-Mart and Target – the Grocers Association hopes to include all stores that sell groceries.  Chair Mike Kirn proposed a straw vote at the August meeting to test the waters en route to the necessary unanimous vote to pass such an ordinance at the Waste Agency.

Our hopes for the ordinance – have it be similar to the bill AB1998, which did not pass in California in August 2010..   Such an ordinance would ban plastic bags at grocery stores, stores that sell groceries, pharmacies, convenience stores and similar stores.  We hope the fee on paper bags will be significant, 25 cents or more.
Visit www.plasticbaglaws.org to follow all the bag action in California.

We are circulating a petition and getting out to city council meetings
“I support a plastic bag ban.”  From these lists, we are extracting folks in each town who might attend their city council meeting to speak during public comment. We can provide all the pertinent details: where, when, what and how, to make speaking out during public comment easy and powerful.  It is important that we show our strength in numbers and keep the energy up in envisioning life beyond plastic bags.