7/15/11

California's highest court has upheld a ban on plastic bags in Manhattan Beach in a widely watched case that could spur additional prohibitions on an item increasingly blamed for littering beaches, strangling wildlife and clogging landfills.

In its unanimous decision, the California Supreme Court said Thursday that Manhattan Beach was not required to conduct a costly environmental review in 2008 when it passed an ordinance prohibiting the bags at the city's 200 or so retail stores.

A group of bag makers and retailers had sued the city, arguing that a shift from plastic to paper bags would cause wider environmental damage. Two lower courts sided with the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition.

The state Supreme Court Thursday overturned those decisions, concluding that "substantial evidence and common sense support the city's determination that its ordinance would have no significant environmental effect."

Environmentalists praised the decision.

"We all want less plastic trash in San Francisco Bay and our oceans - now the court has given Bay Area cities a green light to act swiftly to end the era of the plastic bag in our region," said David Lewis, executive director of environmental group Save the Bay.

The decision has little impact on San Francisco, which enacted its ban on non-biodegradable plastic bags at supermarkets and chain drugstores in 2007, well before the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition was established.

But the case could change the course of bans in other Bay Area communities.

The Save the Plastic Bag Coalition has a similar lawsuit pending against Marin County, which in January passed a plastic bag ban in its unincorporated areas without an environmental review. With Thursday's ruling, Marin County Deputy Counsel David Zaltsman said his case only grows stronger.

"It simply doesn't make sense for these small jurisdictions to conduct environmental studies on the number of boat trips that will increase from China for additional paper bags," Zaltsman said.

San Carlos also believes the ruling precludes the need for an environmental study, which could cost the city upwards of $60,000, according to Mayor Andy Klein.

"The major hang-up for us has been the cost," Klein said. "Now we can debate the ordinance on the merits only."

Stephen Joseph, lawyer for the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition, doesn't see it that way. In his view, the court's opinion was applicable only to Manhattan Beach, and certainly not to bigger cities where the environmental impacts could be much larger.

Indeed, the court did note that environmental reviews may be necessary in some cases.

"The analysis would be different for a ban on plastic bags by a larger governmental body, which might precipitate a significant increase in paper bag consumption," the court stated.