By Danny Kelleher
Sports Editor
In July 2008, the City of Manhattan Beach enacted an ordinance that banned the distribution of plastic bags at the point-of-sale for all retail establishments within the city. Although the ban has been suspended, it should immediately be reenacted as it does not violate any laws and is proven to help the environment of Manhattan Beach.
An organization called the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition argued that Manhattan Beach did not comply with the California Environmental Quality Act by failing to conduct a full Environmental Impact Report prior to the ban and appealed to the Los Angeles County Superior Court after the ban was enacted.
In February 2009 the ordinance was subsequently suspended, but the city appealed to the California Supreme Court in April 2010. A verdict has not been reached about whether the Los Angeles court made the right decision.
The case was heard by the California Supreme Court on May 4 2011, and a verdict is expected within 90 days of the hearing.
The City of Manhattan Beach is completely justified in banning plastic bags, and the California Supreme Court should rule in its favor. The opposition to this ordinance is unfounded because the city did in fact collect research prior to passing the ban.
The coalition has argued that the report lacks a specific section dedicated to potential consequences. Although this is true, the CEQA doesn’t explicitly require a separate section for potential consequences; just that they be included in the report.
The city’s report has potential consequences scattered throughout its report, making it entirely valid. First, the numbers in the report demonstrate plastic bags’ truly damaging effects on the environment.
According to the statistics shared in the report, approximately 6 billion plastic bags are consumed per year in Los Angeles County, out of which only five percent are recycled. Additionally, plastic bags made up 25 percent of the litter found in 30 different storm drains in a 2004 study conducted by the City of Los Angeles.
Based on these statistics, it is abundantly clear that allowing plastic bag usage in the city has a substantially negative effect on the environment of Manhattan Beach.
In addition, a ban would also encourage shoppers to use environmentally safer cloth bags. It is ridiculous that the ordinance has been suspended for the last two years despite these alarming numbers.
The Save the Plastic Bag Coalition is essentially a lobbyist group for the American Chemical Council, and isn’t actually representative of citizens’ viewpoints on plastic bags. Due to this fact, the arguments of the coalition do not account for the negative impact of plastic bags on the city’s environment.
The coalition’s fight for the suspension of the ordinance has only hurt the living environment in Manhattan Beach. The ban on plastic bags within Manhattan Beach needs to be resurrected as soon as possible.
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