Approve ban on plastic bags

SINGLE-use plastic bags — the kind with handles that you get, or used to get, at the grocery store — are an environmental menace.

They end up draped across trees and shrubbery in wilderness areas, and are the second most common item of trash found on the state’s beaches. From there, they find their way into the ocean, where they join giant patches of soupy plastic garbage.

Dozens of municipalities in the state have stepped in to try to change this after the legislature missed several good opportunities to pass a statewide law to reduce the use of the bags. In the municipalities where bans have been imposed, including Los Angeles, shoppers have had to put up with some inconvenience, but the sacrifice has been relatively small. Now the legislature is finally following the lead of the cities it once tried to restrict with a bill that bans singleuse plastic bags and imposes a fee of at least 10c on paper bags.

The legislation, like the municipal ordinances, would affect only plastic bags with handles. Other plastic bags — such as those used to bag vegetables or to wrap this newspaper’s print edition — would not be affected because they generally are disposed of properly.

Eight years ago, the legislature bowed to pressure from the plasticbag industry and prohibited cities and counties from imposing fees.

The bill — SB 270, by Senator Alex Padilla — has flaws. For one thing, we still think it would make more sense to impose fees, rather than a ban, on plastic bags. That would give people who forget their own reusable bags a convenient option while still reducing the use of plastic bags dramatically. The fee proceeds could go to recycling or ocean clean-up projects.

But the bill is definitely better than the continued dependence on plastic bags. Before the bans became common, Californians threw out 123,000 tonnes of the bags each year; the figure is still in the tens of thousands of tons.

Mr Padilla’s bill would provide $2m in one-time funding for existing plastic-bag factories to retool to produce reusable bags.

SB 270 is scheduled to come before the assembly appropriations committee.

The legislature has a chance to make up for its craven legislating of eight years ago, and it should do so. Los Angeles, August 15