LA Bans Plastic Grocery Bags

Yesterday the Los Angeles City Council voted to ban the use of plastic bags in grocery stores. According to this story by David Zahniser and Abby Sewell in the Los Angeles Times, the new ordinance will “phase out plastic bags over the next 16 months at an estimated 7,500 stores, meaning shoppers will need to bring reusable bags or purchase paper bags for 10 cents each.”

Jean-Michael Cousteau must be pleased.

Predictably, the plastic bag people are not happy.

“An industry group warned that the council’s decision will threaten the jobs of 2,000 workers statewide and said it is keeping open the option of filing a legal challenge. “With this bag ban, the city chose to take a simplistic approach that takes away consumer choice instead of pursuing meaningful programs that encourage greater recycling of plastic bags and wraps, while preserving jobs,” said Mark Daniels, chairman of the nonprofit American Progressive Bag Alliance.”

Maybe they can be retrained to produce reusable bags.