Regardless of your thoughts on the issue, you got to love the chutzpah behind an organization called the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition, especially since it is active in that most environmentally correct of West Coast locations, Marin County California. And you’ll only be further impressed with their principal argument in opposition to a county-wide ban on plastic shopping bags: the administration failed to complete an Environmental Impact Study! Would investing taxpayer dollars in a study on the environmental impact of less plastic bags be a wise use of funds? Probably not, but you have to admire the Mad Hatter logic behind the suggestion.
Let’s review. The County Board of Supervisors is at fault for failing to PROVE that the net effect of a plastic ban is environmentally positive. The debate centers on dubious assumptions that five cents a bag isn’t sufficient incentive for shoppers to acquire reusable bags, that the cost of energy to manufacture all those bags outstrips (somehow) the value of getting those bags out of rivers and off of birds, and that the law requires thorough investigation of the total environmental impact of a decision of such magnitude.
This issue has been active in Marin County since 2007. Many of the cities in the county are forming a coalition to act in concert for their own jurisdictions. It seems that the appeal by the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition for a full and complete review has been met by an overwhelming tide of common sense. The lobbyists for the plastics industry have been successful in threatening suits with other cities and counties; it’s nice to see one that chose to ignore the posturing and opt for the environmentally sensible decision.
The Marin Board of Supervisors chose not to go down the rabbit hole, voting 4-0 to pass the ban and charge a nickel for each paper bag a market has to dispense for customers who forget to bring reusable bags. When the Save the Plastics spokesperson threatened a lawsuit, one supervisor observed that defending a suit on an action that jurisdictions all over the country are taking would cost ten or twelve thousand dollars, where an EIR cost would be in six figures. On the whole, not a good day for the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition. Sounds like a historical preservation society, doesn’t it? You could look on thousands of tons of plastic litter as a tradition, but not one that deserves cultural support.
Reusable Shopping Bags 