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Sonoma County waste management officials are advancing a countywide push to ban carry-out plastic bags.
Last year, the county Board of Supervisors and seven of the county’s nine cities supported the effort. The two remaining cities, Santa Rosa and Rohnert Park, have indicated they might join in.
Padro Ordonez, left, and Eliseo San Agustin pull plastic bags from the single stream sort line at the North Bay Corporation Redwood Empire Disposal facility in Santa Rosa on Tuesday, March 6, 2012. (CHRISTOPHER CHUNG/ PD)
In a series of nine meetings around the county this month, the public will be given a chance to weigh in on the shape of any county rules to limit single-use bags, including plastic and paper bags.
The current model ordinance would ban carry-out plastic bags and place a 10-cent fee on each paper bag.
Six California counties, including Marin, Alameda and Santa Clara, and 35 cities, including San Francisco, San Jose and Santa Monica, have adopted similar rules. They cover most retailers, with exceptions that include restaurants, thrift ships and dry cleaners.
The goal is to shift consumers to reusable bags to reduce litter, conserve space in landfills and address other environmental impacts. Nearly 300 million plastic and paper bags are used in Sonoma County every year, officials estimate.
This month’s meetings held by the Sonoma County Waste Management Agency will gauge public opinion and gather input on how limits on single-use bags might be crafted locally.
“Do people want them? Do they think they’re too stringent? Do they think they’re not stringent enough?” said Patrick Carter, a waste management official.
The evening meetings start next week in Petaluma.
The feedback will go to the 10-member Waste Management Agency board, which could decide as soon as April 18 on how to proceed with single-use bag rules.
The joint-powers body is made up mostly of non-elected representatives of each of the nine cities and the county.
County supervisors last year sought assurances that any draft rules would be cleared with the county board and city councils before final approval.
Carter said that step would happen either through direction given to each government’s appointee to the agency or through formal hearings before the local government bodies.
An environmental report would also be needed to evaluate impacts from any rulemaking. Previous cost estimates of $135,000 to $193,000 for the EIR have come down significantly, to as low as $50,000, because of the number of municipalities pursuing bag bans, Carter said.
On the North Coast, Fort Bragg, Ukiah and Mendocino County are conducting environmental studies connected to future bag rules.
Following endorsements by seven Sonoma County city councils last year, Santa Rosa and Rohnert Park council members earlier this year weighed in on local bag restrictions in a study session and at a waste management subcommittee meeting, respectively, Carter said.
Rohnert Park representatives have asked for answers about protection from lawsuits and other issues before scheduling the matter for a full council discussion, said City Manager Gabe Gonzales.
Gonzales noted lawsuits brought by groups representing plastic bag manufacturers. They claim the bans are misguided, pointing to the wide re-use of plastic bags in households. Instead, they have urged expanded recycling of plastic bags.
The California Grocers Association, meanwhile, has voiced support for regional bag rules, saying unified countywide ordinances are easier on grocers and consumers and provide greater environmental gains.
Teejay Lowe, chief executive of local grocer G&G Supermarkets, said the company would want to have a say on the design of any countywide bag rules.
Lowe acknowledged increased consumer preference for reusable totes, but voiced concerns about the possible impact of “onerous regulations” on single-use bags.
“We have to have our input heard,” he said. “And we cannot, especially in these times, be put at an economic disadvantage.”
TALKING ABOUT BAGS
Meetings on possible rules restricting single-use carry-out bags
All meetings start at 6 p.m.
- March 12, Petaluma Veterans Memorial Hall
- March 13, Santa Rosa Veterans Memorial Hall
- March 14, Sonoma Veterans Memorial Hall
- March 19, Cotati Veterans Memorial Hall
- March 20, Cloverdale Veterans Memorial Hall
- March 22, Windsor Community Center
- March 23, Rohnert Park Community Center
- March 26, Villa Chanticleer Annex, Healdsburg
- March 27, Sebastopol Masonic Center
You can reach Staff Writer Brett Wilkison at 521-5295 or brett.wilkison@pressdemocrat.com.
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I’m so impressed! And excited! This message board is filled with sensible responses from actual, thinking, conservative, freedom-loving people. And on a PD website, to boot! Not one response from a silver ponytail in the bunch. I love it. I hope all of you guys turn out to one of the meetings of the un-elected “Masterminds” who rule at will over us minions. The fix is in, however. Everyone believes momentum is building for this ridiculous ban (and power grab) because the media is complicit in the scheme. Try a Google search on Sonoma County Bag Ban and see what you get. All the headlines read “Bag Ban Popular Among the People” or something similar. This is absolutely NOT true. You wouldn’t know it because the media is biased. This discussion is a prime example that the bag ban is NOT popular. Wake up, AMERIKA!
The retail industry particularly the grocers on a daily business created the plastic for convenience. Now the grocers are entering the “feel good..save the kitty kat” political fray to save money because plastic bags are costly. Instead factoring in the cost like they have been for centuries they believe the political stick up their lettuce may bring in more business. Wait until the e-police say no more mea and no more wine. It is a very strange society and dicussion that says abortion is a wonderful advancement in human health, over population creates jobs for union workers, prositution helps bring in some cash for the divorced single mom, violent gangs and violent music is a means of expression and radical non- christian religious fantantics who want to destroy America is what makes America great.
Some 45 years ago our family wrapped the newspapers around the garbage can and buried fishheads in the gardens. I have worked on and, continue to this day, on major common sense viable enivirnomental issues. The plastic bag issue can be solved in 30 days but we have no intelligent leadership in the county nor the country. It’s all a news story.
Reusable bags carry disease and filth. What the hell is the matter with people?
And how did all the idiots end up here in California? Never mind, I know, welfare!
The environmentalists made us switch from paper to plastic in the 80′s . So if they were wrong then, the sure as hell can be wrong now.
This isnt about the environment, its about control and people trying to find a purpose. They need a cause to make them feel important in the world , that they are making a difference, even if they are completely dead wrong. That and when things get popular , people love telling others what to do.Trust me, after the ban, the alternative they choose will be banned in the future as well.
History repeats itself
Uh, why would the county spend any money on a environmental impact report? Isn’t that the point of the new ban…to limit landfill and debris scattered on the freeways?
I’ll save you some money. “the restricted use of disposable one time use plastic bags is estimated to reduce landfill, litter, and debris disposal costs for the next millenium”. If the county wants, I’ll expand it to a number of pages and doll it up with some hard data nobody understands or cares about, but the summary is still the same.
Okay, so now where do I put the scraps from my purchase of a Value Pack of chicken thighs ? Do I have to pay for plastic bags from Glad now instead of practicing re-use ?
Personally, I utilize those bags as much as possible or practical.
Reduce-Reuse-Recycle . I re-use or recycle them. And ALL this for a tiny portion of the waste stream ? Yes, a very tiny portion. Plastic bags ” saved the forests”, now they want to go back to paper ?
By the way, plastic bags are largely made from natural gas, a good cheap source that is fairly clean and ‘green’.
What the what ? Seems like some lunatic crusade to me, yet the ‘un-electeds’ will RULE.
As someone who lives and shops in Marin and works in So Co, I was surprised to read that Marin county has a “similiar” plastic bag ban???? I still get plastic bags at just about every location I shop or get take out and if they are charging me for them, they’re hiding the charge in the sales tax or food costs unlike the increase in taxes and other fees associated with food, gas and other prices I’ve noted).
Many people have already stopped using plastic bags and others will do it when it when it’s convenient and easier for them to do so. The ban is an unnecessary “regulation” in an attempt to speed a change that will likely occur on in it’s own time frame and that will cost money in EIR studies and enforcement that we could spend elseswhere (roads, education, etc.). The biggest users of the plastic bags are people like me, with children at home who re-use the plastic bags and who make one or two trips a week to the store, which requires larger grocery loads which make using the “re-usable” bags more difficult (hard to estimate number of bags needed).
Now, after we’ve vanquished the plastic bag, what next? Our waste stream, to keep the metaphor flowing, is flooded with single use, disposable items that should draw the ire of prohibitionists.
The waste volume of disposable drink containers at fast food restaurants, Starbucks, and the like, must exceed that of plastic bags. If we can all join together and bring our own reusable bags when shopping, adding a reusable drink container makes sense, no?
Ah, the list is practically endless, which should keep our busy little civic leaders preoccupied for quite some time.
What next? Bread and circuses for all.
Plastic Bag Myths:
http://www.apmbags.com/bagmyths
Can we make a rule that our elected officials have to deal with the actual problems before creating BS ones to occupy their time? Can we get a few potholes fixed – maybe with melted plastic bags?
If there was just one proven case of a marine mammal being harmed by a plastic bag… but there isn’t. The bags can be recycled. Why not just require the stores to accept the bags back for recycling?
It’s all BS. ANOTHER distraction issue to keep everyone from focusing on the real problem: excessive spending.
Why can’t our political leaders balance a budget using the enormous sums of money they already take in?
Does that mean my newspaper will no longer be protected from the rain by a plastic bag? I’d bet not, even though most end up in the waste stream. Exceptions will be made for those with influence, and newspapers still qualify as influential.
It’s interesting that thrift stores are also exempted. Why? What makes them special? I should be burdened with carrying enough bags into a grocery store even though I don’t know how many I’ll need, but not a thrift store?
Not that it matters I suppose, but the list of uses to which I put those “single use” bags is long. Now I’ll just have to buy them.
Look for disposable plastics bags on aisle 13. Coming soon to a Walmart near you.
This place is overrun with people who need to mind their DAMN BUSINESS.
They all love telling us how to live don’t they, and when we don’t listen they take our options away. This is no different than ten dozen other issues. The people who support this need a hard slap across the face.
I’m not carrying some hippie satchel into the store, it’s not going to happen.
Oh here we go. Killing business one stupid regulation at a time.