City Council Bans Plastic Bags within Local
Boundaries
• Coalition of Young People and
Environmentalists Issue Call for Swift Action
Urged on by high profile environmentalists
and local youngsters, the Malibu City Council this week
unanimously approved the first reading of an ordinance banning
plastic shopping bags.
Kelly Meyer, who was followed by the
students from the Boys and Girls Club calling themselves the
green teens, talked about the global plastic problems, while
Sarah Abramson, the director of coastal resources at Heal
the Bay told the council about the impacts of plastic shopping
bags on the marine environment.
Last October, in what many consider his
first campaign appearance, then Planning Commissioner John
Sibert, now city council member, had urged the council to
explore banning the use of petroleum-based plastic and
noncompostable bags in Malibu.
Long before that, Mayor Pamela Conley Ulich
had urged a ban on the plastic shopping bags when the council
was considering a ban on Styrofoam take-out products. At that
time, a majority of that council indicated they were not ready
to take on both battles.
A city staff report prepared by Jennifer
Voccola, the city’s environmental program coordinator,
noted the plastic shopping bags “have been found to
significantly contribute to litter and have negative impacts on
the environment.
Due to their lightweight and inflatable
characteristics they can become windblown fouling local creeks,
the ocean and storm drain system,” she said.
“Plastic bags pose a particular
problem for wildlife, especially bird and aquatic life that
mistake the bags for food and as a
result—starving—or suffocate in the bag. Plastic
bags are also known to smother plants,” she added.
“Plastics are a scourge on our environment.”
The Malibu students talked about how much
plastic is now in the environment and how long it takes to
decompose.
Meyer said, “We know a lot of you are
on board. Plastic is a huge problem. Join us in banning all
plastic bags,” she added.
A debate ensued about what to do about
paper bags and how just banning plastic bags might clean up the
immediate environment, but ultimately create landfill problems
because paper generates so much more waste.
Mark Gold, the executive director of Heal
the Bay, told council members no one in the U.S. has done it
yet, but Santa Monica is looking into charging a fee for paper
bags. “If we move everybody from plastics to paper, we
are trading one problem for another,” he said.
However, other council members did not want
to take that action after Conley Ulich made a motion to direct
staff to study a fee for paper bags. Council members balked,
saying it would take time from the staff for other priority
matters.
There were some representatives from the
plastics industry urging the council to not take any action at
this time. Echoing somewhat the sentiments of Gold, they argued
that the ban would do nothing to solve the solid waste problem
and in the long run could exacerbate it.
Council members were told the ban would not
go into complete effect for a year to allow business owners to
make the transition.
