City discards old way of thinking about shopping bags
2011-06-16 / Front Page
Ban on plastic starts July 1
By Sylvie Belmond
belmond@theacorn.com
On July 1, the Calabasas shopper can take his plastic bag and stuff it.
Hoping to reduce littering, the city will no longer allow shoppers to receive the plastic bags in large retail stores, mainly grocery stores. Shoppers will be encouraged to bring their own reusable bags, and paper bags will be available at a cost of 10 cents each.
The deadline for smaller stores to comply with the ban is Jan. 1, 2012. The ordinance doesn’t apply to small plastic bags needed for fruit, vegetables and raw meats.
In February, Calabasas officials voted unanimously to adopt the Los Angeles County plastic bag ordinance of November 2010, which bans the use of disposable plastic bags at grocery stores and other retail shops in unincorporated areas of the county.
To help with the transition, the city will distribute free reusable bags from 9 a.m. to noon on Fri., July 1 in front of Gelson’s and Ralphs and from 1 to 4 p.m. at Albertsons and Maddy’s Market.
“We’ll be purchasing 500 bags from each store and will distribute them to their customers. The giveaway event will stop if we run out of bags before the scheduled time,” said Alex Farassati, environmental services manager for Calabasas.
Under the terms of the new plastic bag ban, stores must have reusable bags available for sale and will offer recyclable paper bags for 10 cents each. The fees will help stores comply with the new law.
Lower income residents who participate in the California Special Supplemental Food Program for the Women, Infants, and Children program will receive either reusable bags or recyclable paper bags for free.
According to Calabasas municipal code, first-time violators will get a written warning.
“Usually residents remind business to comply with environmental regulations. If they don’t see improvement, they then inform the city for appropriate action,” Farassati said.
Any store that fails to comply with the law after the written warning will be guilty of an infraction. The first fine will not exceed $100. Second-time offenders could pay up to $200, and third-time offenders up to $500. The fines will be imposed for each day a violation occurs.
The city has been working with the business community for several years to discourage the use of plastic carry-out bags in its jurisdiction. It joins the growing rank of municipalities that are encouraging residents to bring reusable bags when shopping.
Other cities that are taking action to restrict plastic bags are include Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Long Beach, Malibu and Santa Monica.
Californians use about 19 billion plastic bags each year, 6 billion in Los Angeles County.
Plastic can be found in nearly every man-made object.
The lightweight bags, which first became available in the 1950s, are harmful to the environment because they can be blown out of trash cans and garbage trucks and onto local streets and open spaces and into senstive waterways.
The sacks constitute up to 25 percent of all waste and many of them end up in the ocean where they have accumulated into a floating junkyard of trash roughly twice the size of Texas, also known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
The debris collection in the North Pacific is just one of several that affect the world’s oceans. According to the National Oceans Service, the litter can easily be ingested by marine animals, causing a multitude of problems.
“The story of the floating garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean breaks everybody’s heart,” Farassati said. “Trash is the downfall of our civilization. We could have avoided this environmental tragedy if we were more conscientious about the negative impacts of our ever-increasing waste.”
.
Return to top
