Plastic Bags and a Restorative Economy

I support the new proposal to charge for plastic bags, and here's why. It is because taxpayers are already paying enormous hidden amounts of their tax money so that some shoppers can use plastic bags.

Plastic bags are a huge expense to our communities and a deterrent to meeting our waste diversion goals. Barely recyclable (current figures have stalled at 1 to 4%), almost all of the 600 bags per second used in the State are discarded. Once discarded, they either enter our landfills or our marine ecosystem.

People think of plastic bags as being free. Instead, they actually cost taxpayers millions every year. In San Francisco alone, City officials estimate that they spend $8.5 million annually to deal with plastic bag litter that equates to roughly 17 cents for every bag distributed in the city. Additionally:

• It costs the state $25 million annually to landfill discarded plastic bags.
• Public agencies in California spend in excess of $303 million annually in litter abatement.
• Southern California cities have spent in excess of $1.7 billion in meeting Total Maximum Daily Loads for trash-impaired waterways.
• Cities and Recyclers spend incalculable amounts removing plastic bags from their recyclables stream, where they jam machinery and add to the manual labor costs of recycling.

Plastic bags are an oil-based product. Their manufacture creates air pollution that adds to global warming and uses up precious petroleum resources on a pretty inefficient use. They also fill up our landfills with unnecessary waste.

The Santa Clarita Valley has approximately 60,000 families. If each family uses 5 bags a week, that's 300,000 bags a week or 15.6 million bags a year from our community alone! Only an estimated 1 to 4% of the 15 billion plastic bags used each year in California are recycled.

Santa Clarita has long had a history of discouraging unneccessary waste. Starting in 1992 when the City began its campaign to stop Elsmere Canyon on its Southern border from becoming the largest landfill in the nation, our community has been proactive in its efforts to reduce waste. The idea was that if we didn't want a landfill in our own back yard, we had to "walk the walk" and reduce our local production of garbage. However, once this issue disappeared and Elsmere seemed to be safe, many folks forgot the good habits they had learned.

So it was no surprise when in January of this year the Santa Clarita City Council passed a resolution encouraging consumers to stop using plastic bags. Written with the idea that City staff would promote the concept, it eyed the City's various events such as River Rally and Arbor Day as a way to get canvass bags into the hands and on the arms of residents as they enter their local grocery store.

All over this area, local jurisdictions are trying to address the problem of plastic bags. The County and City of Los Angeles have already passed similar resolutions, and in many cities such as San Francisco, most plastic bags are completely banned. In 2006 Governor Shcwarznegger, signed into law a bill written by Lloyd Levine that now requires all stores to offer plastic bag recycling.

Even China has banned plastic bags, citing many of the same problems that we experience in Santa Clarita. Plastic bags littered their streets and rivers. They expressed concern about the waste of energy and resources to create the bags and asked their shoppers to return to their original custom of bringing a basket with them to do their marketing.

Many retailers already have voluntary plans to reduce the use of plastic bags and encourage the use of canvas bags. Whole Foods announced earlier this year that it would no longer offer plastic bags. Instead, they will offer several alternatives: free paper bags made of 100 percent recycled material; 99¢ reusable bags made mostly from recycled plastic; and canvas bags selling from $6.99 to $35. Customers may also bring their own bags and knock a few cents off their grocery bills.

Among other retailers, most Trader Joe's stores use paper bags, though some offer plastic. Ikea's U.S. stores charge 5 cents for plastic bags, and donate much of the proceeds to a conservation group. Our local Ralph's and Von's offer 5 cents off to reward shoppers for bringing their own bags. In this day and age, 5 cents isn't much to many in our affluent valley, but it helps to build awareness.

But such voluntary programs as promoted by the SCV City Council resolution and these forward-thinking markets are just not enough. Why should taxpayers have to bear all the costs of clean-up and waste for plastic bags? I support the concept of "user pays". It is only fair that those using plastic bags pay the cost of cleaning them up and disposing of them properly. The new Plastic Bag charge will place the cost where it belongs - on the user, not on the taxpayer.

An added benefit is that this incentive will quickly modify people's shopping behavior to become more environmentally friendly and will promote oil conservation.

Carole Lutness Candidate for Assembly, 38th AD