County Considers Ban on Plastic Bags

Cities throughout Sonoma County are beginning discussions about a countywide ban on plastic bags, similar to policies that have been implemented in Marin County, Los Angeles County and San Francisco.

The ordinance would ban plastic bags at the point of sale—or at the cash register—and would makes companies charge a fee for paper bags (usually 5-25 cents). Plastic bags for non-sale transactions, such as for vegetables, wouldn’t be affected.

“In Sonoma County, there is half a million dollars spent on litter costs, mostly on plastic bags,” said Mellissa Bushway, a member of Reduce Single Use, a local movement to ban plastic bags in all stores. “It’s necessary to nudge people to bring their own bags.”

At Monday's council meeting, Petaluma council members expressed support for a ban, although some wondered where money to implement it would come from.

“Seeing the plastic bags in the water, in our own watershed, was a little crazy for me,” said Petaluma Councilwoman Tiffany Renee. “This is a systematic environmental issue. We fish out of those rivers.”

A quick survey of local stores revealed that many business owners are personally in favor of a ban, but were worried about push back from consumers. Most would not go on the record to express their feelings about the ban, even if they agreed that environmentally it was the right thing to do.

Another concern was that paper breaks down too quickly. For groceries, multiple bags can be used, but heavier items—like tools, books or big-ticket items–could rip through paper pretty quickly. Plastic, at least, holds up.

Three grocers in town currently don't use plastic bags—, Market and Raley's. Raley’s went paper-only last year (on Earth Day), and has found that the majority of people prefer paper and have no issues with the change in policy.

“I’ve had like 5,000 thumbs up for this and about one person against it,” said Ryan Maudlin, head clerk and front end manager at Raley’s. “People who are upset by it, use the plastic bags for other things.” These include cleaning up after pets or using the bags as trash liners.

Raley’s and Trader Joe’s have also tried to incentivize their customers to get away from plastic bags in other ways, such as entering people into a raffle for a gift certificate if they bring in their own bags. Raley’s offers a 5 cent per bag donation to California State Parks, with about $100,000 donated since the program started. Whole Foods also has a donation policy for people with re-useable bags.

Sonoma County residents use an average of 1.3 plastic bags every day, according to Sonoma County Waste Management Agency, which gave a presentation to the council on Monday.

And while plastic is stronger than paper, it does not disintegrate and instead sits in landfills for hundreds of years. Plastic bags that are not buried often get airborne and become litter.

Action on the ordinance is still months away as the waste management agency meets with local jurisdictions to gauge if there is significant interest in supporting a countywide ban or whether they will have to pursue separate ordinances in each city.

“Some cities may not want it,” Carter said. “They may wait for the state to act.”

Rohnert Park has already shown , with several council members saying that the city can reduce plastic bag use without doing a California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) analysis. The plastics industry opposed a ban on plastic bags and the CEQA is viewed as a way to prevent potential legal challenges.

However, a CEQA can cost up to $200,000, plus the potential $137,00 per year to enforce the ban if businesses continue to use plastic.