Back in Feb. 2008, Santa Monica City Council voted to draft an ordinance banning one-use plastic and biodegradable plastic-like bags in the city — plus charging a fee for paper bags — in order to encourage people to bring their own reusable bags. Last night, the City Council was finally set to vote on the ordinance — but decided to push the decision back further.
The reason: The plastic bag industry, aka savetheplasticbag.com, threatened the city with a lawsuit, alleging that an environmental impact study is required. So the city staff recommended that the council defer first reading of the ordinance until the staff determines what level of additional study’s necessary.
Mark Gold of Heal the Bay argued against deferring the vote, basically saying that doing so allows big corporate interests to infringe on “local government’s right to govern.” In response, councilmembers said that they want to make the ordinance as bulletproof as possible, considering both the fact that a judge that could rule on this issue for Santa Monica ruled in favor of a similar lawsuit filed against another city, and that Santa Monica’s ordinance is being used as a template in other communities.
City staff said that doing an environmental review may not actually push back the effective date of the ordinance, since the study can be done concurrently with the staff’s fee study on how much to charge for paper bags. Plus, undertaking any necessary environmental study now might speed things up more than waiting until a judge requires the study, staff said.
Councilmembers called for more transparency about what’s happening with this ordinance — in terms of new timelines, etc. — so that Santa Monica residents wouldn’t simply think the council’s dragging its feet on the issue. You can read a copy of the proposed ordinance here, or watch a video of the council meeting to see how it all went down.
Earlier: Styrofoam and the City: The fate of plastic bags and polystyrene in LA
Update, 1/16/09: Heal the Bay’s Mark Gold gives his take on this turn of events. “All the plastic and chemical industries are looking to do on these lawsuits (they sued Manhattan Beach, Los Angeles County, and Oakland on plastic bag actions) is to maximize corporate profits at the expense of the environment.”
Photo by Envirowoman
Thanks for the update. I couldn’t find anything about the vote in the Times, SM Daily News or on the Heal the Bay site, so I had a feeling it had been delayed. Bummer!
Comment by Anne T. — January 14, 2009 @ 1:25 pm
I hope they get the studies done quick on this. Death to plastic bags!
Comment by Gary Kavanagh — January 14, 2009 @ 1:30 pm
The councilmembers seemed to be v. much on board with being more transparent re: the timeline of this thing — I think they can tell people are getting impatient, as it’s already been a year since the last time the council took up the issue. Will await more news –
Comment by Siel — January 16, 2009 @ 3:25 pm