Santa Cruz County is considered to be one of the most environmentally conscious counties in the state. It is, therefore, surprising to many that it has not yet banned plastic bags, like San Francisco and San Jose have already done (San Jose’s ban is scheduled to go into effect in January).
The problem is the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition, a group affiliated with the plastic bag industry, which argues that paper bags are more harmful to the environment than plastic. They have taken the bag issue head on, suing cities and counties alike for introducing anti-plastic bag legislation. Their latest strategy has been to sue municipalities for failing to conduct an environmental impact review before introducing the ban. Most recently, they tried that tactic in Manhattan Beach.
It failed. Last week the California Supreme Court ruled that Manhattan Beach did not require a full environmental impact report to enact legislation banning plastic bags. This has encouraged environmental activists in Santa Cruz County, which has not produced a costly environmental impact report either. Once the county enacts such a ban, there is little doubt municipalities such as Santa Cruz and Capitola will enact one too.
But things are not as easy as they seem. While the Supreme Court did rule that Manhattan Beach doesn’t need a report, its ruling was more ambiguous about other localities. “The Supreme Court case doesn’t really change anything as far as Santa Cruz is concerned,” said the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition’s attorney, Stephen Joseph. His group plans to keep on fighting, county by county, city by city.
His adversary is the Chair of the Board of Supervisors Mark Stone. Stone wants to see a similar ban enacted in Santa Cruz as quickly as possible, though he says that this might have to wait until September. But, he adds, the county has no choice. The other alternative to banning bags would be to tax them, and under pressure from plastic bag lobbyists, the legislature has banned that possibility throughout all of California. Read more at Santa Cruz Sentinel.
