I have blogged about how you should switch to the reusable shopping bags. I’ve also blogged about uses for your disposable plastic bags, but if you live in Los Angeles, you won’t have much need for that blog anymore because LA, home to 4 million people, has become the largest municipality in America to ban plastic shopping bags.
(This image is from MorgueFile.)
The city council approved the ban by a vote of 13 to 1. Environmental groups campaigning for this ban elicited the help of celebrities such as John Cusack, Edward Norton, and Julia Roberts.
This ban won’t take effect immediately. Larger retails have six months to get rid of plastic, then six more months to give out free paper bags. Smaller retailers will have a full year to rid themselves of plastic. Once the ban is in effect, shoppers can bring their own bags or purchase paper bags for 10 cents each.
This should make a big dent in LA trash. It is estimated that of the 43 percent of plastic trash LA produces, at least 19 percent of that is plastic bags alone.
While LA is the largest city to ban plastic bags, it is not the first. It joins 47 more California cities that enact a ban, including San Francisco, Malibu, San Jose, and Pasadena. Fairbanks, Alaska had an ordinance at one time that allowed you to get plastic bags, but you had to pay a 5-cent charge per bag at the checkout. The ordinance has since been rescinded. But, if you travel to Washington, D.C., you will find a 5-cent per carryout bag fee.
Aspen, Colorado only has two grocery stores, but you can’t get plastic bags in either one. And if you want paper bags, that’s going to cost you 20-cents each. The counties of the Barrier Islands in North Carolina banned plastic bags way back in 2010.