One reason local governments have not been more successful in instituting carryout plastic bag bans is the threat of lawsuits by the plastics industry. In many cases, municipalities have moved forward with trying to pass an ordinance without obtaining an environmental impact report (EIR). Under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), a public agency undertaking a project that may cause a significant change in the environment must prepare an EIR.
Industry’s general argument is that by banning the distribution of plastic carryout bags from some stores, the locality is undertaking a project that will increase the manufacture and distribution of paper bags. Since this may result in a significant adverse change in the environment, the locality should be required to prepare an EIR before adopting the ordinance or else be in violation of CEQA.
via California plastic carryout bag ban movement gaining ground.
This whole thing pisses me right off. I mean, I support the ban, but I don’t get why it doesn’t just happen. Wtf is the hold-up here, people? Sometimes, I swear, I don’t get …. anything that happens in this country. At Trader Joe’s the other day I saw a woman loading her reusable bags into the back of a fucking enormous vehicle. Like the largest Suburban you’ve ever seen or something. I’m not necessarily interested in criticizing what people drive, there’s always some excuse for driving some huge gas-guzzling monstrosity, so whatever. But why even bother with your stupid reusable bags, they can’t possibly cancel out your vehicle. It’s like people don’t even think twice about their waste. I see people doing the most wasteful crap. At our apartment complex, we have three dumpsters, two for trash and one for recycling. But people are too stupid or just don’t care and there’s always trash in the recycling dumpster and OMFG, probably half the stuff in the “trash” dumpsters could be recycled. Seriously, we should have two recycling dumpsters and one trash. People would probably just pile the trash on the ground or something, such is the state of things. Here’s an inspiration: A Year Without Garbage. A couple from Oregon reused, recycled and reduced until the only actual trash they had, for an entire year, fit in a shoe box. If they can do that, I’m sure everyone else in the damn country could make a few changes, yes? *fuming*
