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After State Ban on Plastic Bags Fails, Santa Barbara to Revisit Local Ordinance
After the California State Senate decided last week not to enact a statewide ban on plastic grocery bags, thoughts are turning to Santa Barbara and whether local action will be taken in an effort to enact a ban.
According to reports, key lawmakers in the legislature said the measure would be too costly, with just 14 votes received in favor of a ban and 20 opposed.
The Assembly bill, formally known as Assembly Bill 1998, would have prohibited supermarkets from providing single-use plastic bags to customers, though paper bags would be available for no less than 5 cents each. Even the paper bags provided would have had a minimum of 40 percent post-consumer recycled content.
The bill would have gone into effect for supermarkets on Jan. 1, 2012, and in 2013 for convenience stores. Customers could have avoided the tax by bringing reusable grocery bags.
At the local level, the Santa Barbara City Council supported AB 1998, and it even advocated that the bill be made stronger, with higher fees for the bags in order to reduce use.
The idea of cutting down on single-use bags has received support from several organizations, including Santa Barbara Channelkeeper and the California Grocers Association, which partnered with the city during the “Where’s Your Bag?” campaign that kicked off in August 2009.
Several months later, city staff recommended that a survey be conducted to find out whether residents were willing to pay a tax on single-use bags, and if so, how much. The council directed city staff to explore the logistics and the cost of conducting such a survey, which raised some eyebrows when it was announced that it could cost as much as $50,000. The City Council decided against awarding the contract then, but it agreed to reconsider it in September.
San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles and Malibu have adopted ordinances prohibiting the distribution of plastic bags, but a number have been sued by plastic-bag manufacturers on the basis that prohibitions were “projects” subject to the California Environmental Quality Act.
Santa Barbara Mayor Helene Schneider, who has been supportive of a ban, said last week she was disappointed that the California Senate didn’t pass the bill.
“I believe the issue of reducing plastic bag litter, regulating single-use bags and promoting reusable bags would have been most effective on a statewide basis,” she said. “Failure to pass this piece of legislation just underscores the power of the plastics lobbying industry in Sacramento.”
Now the city needs to determine its next steps, Schneider said, and she’ll be working with environmental services staff on the appropriate process.
“I hope and expect that we can schedule a councilwide discussion in the near future,” she said.
One of the groups on record in support of the ban is the Environmental Defense Center, which said it supports a local measure.
“The voluntary fee system encourages a conscientious shift in behavior, while leaving consumers and retailers with options, and avoiding impacts on specific segments of the population,” the group wrote in a statement to Noozhawk. “We are optimistic that the proposed measure will be a win-win-win situation for consumers, retailers and the environment.”
Another group that supported the statewide ban is the California Grocers Association.
“The goal is to move away from a system where all consumers subsidize the considerable costs of single-use bags to a system where consumers can make the economic choice of whether the convenience of single-use bags is worth the expense,” Dave Heylen, the association’s vice president of communications, said in statement put out a few days before the vote was taken in the legislature.
Heylen said eliminating plastic bags isn’t a question of if, but when.
“Already, several California localities have said they will pass plastic bag bans immediately if AB 1998 fails,” he said in the statement, adding that more than 70 cities are considering enacting bans.
But some local residents, including two members of the City Council, say they oppose the ban and any local action.
Councilman Frank Hotchkiss talked with Noozhawk last week and said he is against the ban for multiple reasons.
He said he’s “totally against any new taxes that cost people more money than they’re already pressed to pay,” adding that he wouldn’t vote for the survey. He called the ban “divisive,” and said it probably unfairly weighed against people of lower incomes.
“Anecdotally, you see a lot more reusable bags at places like Trader Joe’s than you do with customers in less affluent places,” he said.
Putting a burden on shoppers could potentially drive business out of the city and to places such as Goleta, where a ban hasn’t been considered, according to Hotchkiss. He said he’s dubious about the environmental benefits as well, adding that he wouldn’t vote to put the item on the ballot in November.
Councilwoman Michael Self, who also opposed the ban in the past, didn’t elaborate much on her stance, but she said the state may have considered how many jobs would be lost because of the ban.
The survey is expected to go before the City Council in September.
— Noozhawk staff writer Lara Cooper can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Comments
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» on 09.07.10 @ 11:02 PM
liberals at work—come on-what about Jobs???
Das & Helene needs to go..
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» on 09.08.10 @ 06:10 AM
Put it on the ballot, a fair amount of what, exactly, the bags cost per each in terms of making, delivery, landfill, and see if we in the city support it. No $50,000 for surveys. I supported the state measure, but I don’t know about piecemeal local measures. As for the argument of increased taxes, it’s deceptive: one has a choice to bring one’s own bag and not pay for a bag—- unlike for Measure S where one has no choice. (Hotchkiss is at least consistent, voting no on that one.)
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» on 09.08.10 @ 03:15 PM
If they feel the need to do a survey, give it o market research/statistics students at UCSB or SBCC as a class project. The whole thing could be done for a few thousand dollars.
I have to assume the company that was going to be awarded the contract is a friend of City Council members.
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» on 09.09.10 @ 03:21 PM
Good grief! Once again the people hurt the most are those who can least afford it. If the aging hippies want to go back in time do it on your own dime. Stop foisting expensive elitist feel good guilt assuaging crap on those who cannot afford it.
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» on 09.09.10 @ 03:37 PM
I watched Schneider and Williams work the other night and it was scary to see how they have no concept of our funds. That said, Anonomyous has a PERFECT solution…unless of course Das and Helene are tied into the survey firm?
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» on 09.09.10 @ 05:41 PM
If the bags cost 5 or 10 cents in landfill costs, which costs do trickle down to all of us, then those least able to afford it are already paying. I’d have more sympathy if I thought there really were people in Santa Barbara who could not afford the $2 (max) per non-plastic bag that could be used over and over and over and over again. If there are such and there may well be, then they should be able to get free bags at city hall.
I think the “least able to afford it” is an argument that doesn’t get off the ground, given this city and the very real costs associated with plastic bags. As for jobs lost, surely that would more or less even out by manufacturing the non-plastic bags. I’d be more sympathetic to that argument if there were people at work picking up all the plastic bags littering the city and area, as well as filling up the landfills.
...I completely agree about giving the survey work to SBCC or UCSB students rather than paying $50K for it!
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