Overview: A planned ordinance in Marin County to ban plastic bags outright and place a fee on paper bags. This ordinance seeks to transition consumers to reusing bags. Sierra Club Marin Group Position: Supports Bag Ban in Marin County (unincorporated areas) and encourages towns and cities to follow County Supervisor’s lead in enacting similar ordinances. Description: Approximately 19 billion single-use plastic bags are used annually in California, but only 5 percent are recycled. Numerous studies have documented their impact on air pollution, land and wildlife. Single use bag production contributes to: The finished product: Effect if Successful: Environmental impact can be estimated by studying the success of San Francisco and other areas with such ordinances. San Francisco is keeping 60 million bags from ending up in landfills, on the street, or in the bay per year. Financial impact on local stores would be a significant savings in packaging materials. Manufacturers of the bags will be negatively affected as they retool to produce more sustainable products. Support: Supervisors Charles McGlashan and Susan Adams introduced the ordinance to the Marin County Board of Supervisors. The board has voted 4-0 in favor of the ban, with Harold Brown absent. It is supported by a broad coalition of environmental groups, grocers and retailers. Opposition: The bag manufacturers have declared their opposition to single-use bag bans, going so far as to sue cities that have adopted them. Voters recognize and resent corporate interests who attempt to obstruct local and state efforts to protect the environment, as shown by the November 2010 defeats of PG&E funded-Proposition 16 and corporate oil funded-Proposition 23. Background: In 2003, a small Australian community of 200- Coles Bay, Tasmania- took a big step. Recognizing the environmental impact their community’s 200,000 tourists have on Coles Bay, retailers came together and banned plastic bags. A prime whale migration spot along the eastern seaboard, Coles Bay’s action has protected these whales from the devastating effect of plastic in their ecosystem- over 350,000 bags were saved in the first year. The positive effects for Coles Bay were not limited to the environment, as the ban generated a wave of positive publicity for the town throughout Australia, which has now banned single-use plastic bags nationwide. The leadership of Coles Bay and other small communities has placed pressure on regional and national governments to adopt similar bans, most notably South Africa, where plastic bags that litter the streets are known as the country's "national flower". Currently a host of large nations overseas have banned plastic bags. These include a significant portion of the developed world, including France, Corsica, Italy, Spain, Australia, and many large regions, such a Quebec, Canada. But perhaps most inspiring has been efforts in the developing world to adopt single-use bag bans. With at least some form of ban, China, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Botswana, Brazil, Eritrea, India, Rwanda, Somalia, Taiwan, Tanzania and Uganda have led the way. China’s ban bag alone cut the use of 40 billion bags and saved 1.6 million tons of petroleum. |
Current Status: The Board of Supervisors with H. Brown absent voted 4-0 in favor of the ban. What you can do:
Future Actions: This ordinance affects only the unincorporated areas of Marin County. In order to have a more significant impact, SCMG encourages all cities to follow the lead of Fairfax and pass a ban on single use plastic bags. In communities where a ban may face a political struggle, placing fees on single-use bags has proven to be a great alternative way to start reducing demand. Washington, DC’s fee has seen tremendous results: plastic bag use dropped from 22 million to 3 million a month in our nation’s capital. But whether it’s a ban or a fee, environmentalists must continue to push for common-sense local ordinances and statewide legislation to cut down on the number of bags we use each year.
|
