2/17/11
After almost two hours of discussion Monday night, the Fort Bragg City council agreed to have the Mendocino Solid Waste Management Authority prepare an environmental impact report for a draft ordinance regulating single-use plastic carryout bags. City Manager Linda Ruffing noted that the Public Works & Facilities Committee met Jan. 13 to review a draft ordinance, intended to reduce waste and litter generated by small plastic bags used to carry merchandise from stores. It is also intended to promote the use of reusable cloth bags. According to staff reports, costs would be limited to city attorney review and associated staff expenses and fines for violations could be used to offset enforcement costs. The committee also recommended that a 10-cent charge be applied to some paper bags so retailers could cover the cost of providing them. However, it has yet to be determined how small a paper bag would have to be in order to avoid that charge. Fast food outlets typically offer drive-up food in paper and plastic bags of varying sizes. MSWMA Manager Mike Sweeney said the city would need to decide if exemptions would apply to some outlets or if the ordinance would apply equally to all. Sweeney came to the meeting with a collection of plastic bags from around the city and said litter is the foremost problem with them. He estimated that bags from Safeway make up about half of those found locally, but also showed bags from other stores. He said plastic bags now make up about 25 percent of all litter. Showing a decrepit Walmart plastic bag, he noted that plastic does not biodegrade, but falls apart and typically ends up in the ocean. Another problem with plastic bags is the waste of resources, he said, and the bag industry uses a lot of petroleum and energy to create disposable things. Cities ban together Sweeney called San Jose's ordinance exceptional, noting that its authors had looked at, and included, every conceivable negative impact caused by plastic bags. He said Fort Bragg can benefit greatly from the work of the other cities. Sweeney felt the ordinance could be generated quickly. Vice Mayor Meg Courtney said that during her informal survey of retailers, most grocers said they would be happy to see plastic bags banned. She said some questioned having a 10-cent charge for paper bags until she explained that the retailer would keep the charge to cover its costs for offering them. Sweeney explained later that the idea is not to replace plastic with paper bags, but to incentivize the use of reusable cloth bags.
