Get used to remembering your canvas grocery bag
– if you live in an unincorporated area, if you shop at the
fewer than 20 stores that are affected by the Santa Clara County
board of supervisors’ ban of single-use plastic bags Tuesday and if
you don’t want to pay 15 cents for a recyclable paper bag. The
ordinance passed 4-1, with District 1 Supe
rvisor Mike Wasserman casting the sole
”
no
”
vote. Full article
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SAN JOSE – Get used to remembering your canvas grocery bag – if you live in an unincorporated area, if you shop at the fewer than 20 stores that are affected by the Santa Clara County board of supervisors’ ban of single-use plastic bags Tuesday and if you don’t want to pay 15 cents for a recyclable paper bag. The ordinance passed 4-1, with District 1 Supervisor Mike Wasserman casting the sole “no” vote.
Before turning down the two years of work and waiting by Supervisor Ken Yeager, Wasserman argued that the ordinance posed too many unknown costs and enacted unnecessary government regulations. He cited the county staff report that said plastic bags account for 1 percent of the county’s pollution.
“That means 99 percent is not plastic bags,” Wasserman said at the board meeting Tuesday.
The ordinance bans businesses in unincorporated areas of the county from providing customers with single-use plastic bags, most commonly for groceries, and also adds a minimum 15-cent tax to buy a recyclable paper bag. Stores could be fined up to $500 for violations.
Supervisor Liz Kniss said the county’s ordinance is one of few in the county that is banning plastic, while also encouraging people to not use paper – also harmful to the environment, the county says. The city of San Jose passed a similar ban in January, becoming one of two known cities in Santa Clara County to actually ban single-use bags, Palo Alto is the other.
The message, the county says, is to encourage residents to carry reusable grocery bags, limit unneeded pollution from both paper and plastic and set a precedent for other agencies.
Wasserman said the ban, which goes into effect Jan. 1, would most affect the wineries and golf courses in South County – “It’s hard to believe this is the source of the problem that the ordinance aims to address,” he said.
Several speakers on behalf of environmental organizations such as Clean Water Action were supportive and encouraged the board to pass the ordinance. Paper and plastic bags were called “blight” and “a nuisance,” and one speaker compared their outdated existence with colonialism and asbestos.
The county listed a handful of bags excluded from the ordinance: paper or plastic bags for fresh produce, meat, frozen foods, prepared foods, bakery items, prescription drugs, small utility bags at hardware stores and greeting card “header” bags. Plastic bags used to protect delivered newspapers, dry cleaning bags and fast food are excluded, too.
Since 2008, the county has distributed 80,000 free reusable bags for county residents to encourage the change, Kevin O’Day said, the county’s deputy agricultural commissioner.
