Pictured: the ban on plastic shopping bags is an attempt to reduce litter, which includes bags that make it to the ocean and endanger sea life.
The new Los Angeles county ordinance banning plastic store carryout bags and imposing a 10 cent charge on paper ones starts July 1.
The ban affects only unincorporated county areas such as Altadena (altho' some cities, like Santa Monica, have imposed their own ban). The phase that begins July 1 will affect retail stores with at least $2 million gross sales, stores of at least 10,000 square feet of retail space with a pharmacy, or any store that sells a limited line of goods such as milk, bread, soda, and snacks, including liquor stores. All stores will be expected to comply by Jan. 1, 2012.
The reason behind the ban? The county estimates that, in 2007, there were 1,600 plastic carryout bags used per year per household countywide. The ordinance is an attempt to reduce that number by half, which it also estimates will reduce litter cleanup costs by $4 million.
The downside, of course, is that it may send customers to Pasadena to avoid the bag charge.
And, while stores can keep the money to cover costs (including costs of the bags and awareness campaigns), it also imposes a burden on the businesses to make a quarterly report to the Pubic Works Dept. on the number of bags that have been provided, how much money has been collected, and a summary of the store's efforts to promote reusable bag use.
Locally, grocery stores will be among the first ones affected by the new ordinance. According to Damien Valdez, a buyer with Super King Market at Lincoln Crossing, they'll be ready for the July 1 date.
"Essentially, what we're doing right now is trying to get the word out to our customers, and we've posted flyers on the checkstands," Valdez said. "We're going to be in full compliance to the letter." Customers will be encouraged to bring their own bags, and Super King is going to be selling reusable bags at five for a dollar, although Valdez says that may change.
Super King is no longer ordering bags for the Altadena store, Valdez said, although they are still ordering plastic bags for their other two locations that are not in unicorporated county.
Phone calls to Ralphs on Lake Avenue to see how they were going to handle the new ordinance were referred to their corporate headquarters, which had not responded as of press time.
