Earlier this week, there was a public meeting in the library for information and public comments about the City of San Jose's proposed ban on free disposable plastic and paper bags for retailers.
It's one of the strictest bans proposed, banning not only plastic, but free disposable paper bags, too.
Pending an environmental impact review, the ban is scheduled to take effect in 2011.
San Jose retailers would be able to sell paper bags made out of 40% recycled paper for between 10 and 25 cents each.
The City of San Jose plans to implement a public educational outreach program to encourage people to bring reusable bags for use at retailers.
Most of us have heard that San Francisco banned plastic bags in 2007.
I was amazed to find out that many other cities, counties, and countries have also reduced their plastic bag usage through extra taxes on plastic bags, purchase fees on plastic bags, or outright bans on plastic bags.
Some of these cities and countries are Los Angeles, Mexico City, Washington DC, Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bhutan, China, England, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, India, Ireland, Italy, Israel, Kenya, Norway, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Tanzania, Taiwan, and Uganda.
Maui County, Hawaii is also banning plastic bags starting in 2011.
Why ban plastic and paper bags?
* Plastic bags end up jamming and clogging machinery at recycling facilities and the workers have to pull them out of the recycling stream to send them to a landfill. Since the plastic bags not biodegradable, they break down into smaller and smaller pieces and end up polluting our soil and water.
* Plastic bags are so light, they're easily carried by the wind and end up in our communities or waterways as litter.
* Animals, both aquatic and terrestrial, get tangled in or eat plastic bags with deadly results.
* Plastic bags are made from petroleum....a non-renewable resource that has high risks, such as the recent oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico that is affecting ocean/terrestrial wildlife, beaches, and people/businesses along the Gulf Coast.
* Paper bags are made from tree pulp and their production impacts our forests. 14 million trees were used to produce 10 million grocery bags by the U.S. in 1999. Our forests reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that lead to global warming, so using trees for disposable paper bags is not desirable. Most paper bags are made with virgin tree pulp (not recycled wood) for bag strength and elasticity.
* The production of both paper and plastic bags uses many chemicals that end up polluting our air, soil, and waterways.
Green tip of the week: Consider putting some reusable cloth or tote bags you already have at home in your vehicle to use at the market or store, instead of disposable plastic or paper bags.
Some retailers are already offering incentives to customers for bringing their own bags....Target, CVS, and Whole Foods.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/33430303
Do you know of any other businesses offering incentives or money back for bringing your own bag?
Here's a link about San Jose's ban on paper and plastic bags:
http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2009/09/21/daily106.html
Here are some links that discuss in more detail about the different regions banning or taxing plastic bags:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKPEK17044520080527
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7178287.stm
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/04/080404-plastic-bags.html
Here's a link about the paper bag information:
http://www.reusablebags.com/facts.php?id=7
Governor Schwarzenegger has dropped plans for the offshore oil drilling project near Santa Barbara, CA after seeing the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/03/BA1Q1D8SRP.DTL
(Thank you, Theresa, for sending the notes on Monday's public meeting in the library.)
Someone asked me about alternatives to using plastic bags as trash bags.
ReplyDeleteThe City of San Jose is looking into implementing a curbside composting program. Pilot projects have been started in March 2010 for the Willow Glen, Cambrian, Berryessa, and Almaden Valley areas.
It looks like the City of San Jose will provide a compost kitchen pail container with compostable liners for fruits and vegetables, meat, poultry, seafood, bones, eggs and eggshells.
Paper towels, coffee filters and paper take-out boxes, and pizza boxes can be included in yard waste bins.
For other trash, you might consider going bag-less....since hopefully most of the messy stuff can be handled by the compost container.
The City of San Jose hopes to implement the composting program city-wide by 2013.
Does anyone else have any helpful tips about going bag-less for trash?
Here's some articles about the pilot project:
http://www.mercurynews.com/san-jose-neighborhoods/ci_14457459
http://www.kcbs.com/pages/6469274.php?contentType=4&contentId=5665275