Welcome Los Angeles to the growing list of countries and municipalities that are taking a stand against plastic bags. Following in the footsteps of Australia, China, Israel, Melbourne, San Francisco and others, the City of Los Angeles has jumped on the plastic bag ban bandwagon to stop the persistent environmental hazards from entering the LA waste stream by 2010.
The city council voted to ban plastic bags effective on July 1, 2010. The vote is a timely pressure point for the state to pass an Assembly bill (AB 2058) next month that addresses recycling issues and a fee for plastic bags. The tactics are a step in the right direction, especially considering that LA’s locale is prime for direct pollution of plastic into the Pacific Ocean.
LA and California seem to be on the right track in terms of at least addressing the huge problem of plastic – LA consumers use some 2.3 billion bags. Only about 5 percent of those plastic bags are recycled, leaving the remainder to swirl in the winds and tides posing a hazard to wildlife and humans. The city is also stepping it up with a ban on Styrofoam at city facilities by 2009.
Via EcoLocalizer
This is glorious news!
I wish my home town, Montreal, would take that initiative… i don’t think they’re even considering it yet.
Maybe some petition work and a couple call to my districs mayor would strat someting =/
Kudos to LA
Ugo
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stencilworks.finewar.ca
Every city should follow suit.
Wow. That’s a great choise they did there. I’m sure some movement is going to happen because of this.
Recycling and pollution issues take many different forms. But at least this is a step in the right direction. First, LA bans the plastic bag: then it bans the automobile.
(Nah! I must be dreaming…)
You know if Wal-Mart band these bags, everyone would do it and it wouldn’t take until 2010 in LA. They could actually make a profit on it, selling reusable bags for $0.25 each. I think the whole idea of recycling the bags is foolish, especially at the store where you got the bags. It’s mind blowing to watch people bring in a pile of bags, place them in the recycle bin and then get new bags when they checkout. Why not just reuse the bags they just placed in the recycling bin??? It would save on the entire recycling loop… collection, transportation, reprocessing etc, etc etc…
This is good news since environmental degradation is a problem the world over. Polythene bags have also been banned in my country Uganda. Hope more coutries follow suit.
Congrats LA, here in Phuket Thailand we are just about to announce it, as a private citizen initiative that has got local Government support. We aim for our beautifull Island to prepare for the future by plastic reduction, recycling, better water management and aim for our small province to lead the way for Thailand.
http://www.summerinphuket.com
[...] the world’s seventh largest economy. Several California cities, including San Francisco and Los Angeles, have already banned plastic [...]