City Moves Forward on Plastic Bag Ban

Despite ongoing litigation between Marin County and the plastics industry, San Rafael city staff are moving forward on a possible ordinance that will ban plastic bags and take-out containers in the city.

In a study session on Monday, the City Council met with staff and community members to discuss how to proceed drafting the ordinance, which would prohibit plastic single-use bags in pharmacies, convenience stores and grocery stores, as well as impose a 5-cent fee on paper bags. The ordinance would also ban plastic take-out containers at local restaurants.

City staff held a study session in August to analyze the issue, but halted after a lawsuit was filed against the county’s similar ordinance.

“The only circumstance that’s changes since then is the threat of a lawsuit by the plastics industry,” Councilman Damon Connolly said. “However the driver of good policy should not be the fear of getting sued.”

Lawsuit Against the County

In January 2011, in retail markets in unincorporated Marin and was sued by Save the Plastic Bag Coalition for not conducting an environmental impact report beforehand.

Marin Superior Court Judge Lynn Duryee ruled in late September that the county’s ordinance did not require officials to prepare an environmental impact report--a decision which is currently under appeal.

Stephen Joseph, attorney for Save the Plastic Bag Coalition, threatened to sue any city that proceeds with an ordinance without conducting an environmental study.

Despite the lawsuit, the county’s ordinance went into effect in January 2012. “We’re happy to report that it’s working,” said Maureen Parton, aid to Supervisor Kate Sears.

Parton also served as aid to Supervisor Charles McGlashan, who led the county’s plastic bag ban efforts until his passing in March 2011. She urged the staff to “get all of San Rafael’s ducks in a row” in order to adopt an ordinance, despite the ongoing legal battle.

Impacts on Neighborhoods and the Outdoors

er Joe Feria is one of many Canal neighborhood kids who clean up the litter streets every month. Plastic bags are one of the main discarded items Feria picks up.

“We want the stores to change,” the 17-year-old said. “Plastic bags are one of the main contaminates in our neighborhoods and in our oceans.”

San Rafael residents Art Reichert and Judy Schriebman support all bans “that will protect our creek,” as Schriebman put it.

After rainstorms, plastic bags and other garbage wash down from business centers, like , and eventually end up in the marsh of the Gallinas Creek Watershed.

Reichert, who lives in Santa Venetia, conducts a neighborhood clean up of the watershed, where residents scour the marsh for scrapes of garbage that lodge themselves in the reeds. In the last clean up, neighbors pulled 20 bags of trash out of the creek.

Involving Small Business Owners

A common criticism from small business owners in several cities that passed plastic bag  ordinances is that the increased cost from a paper bag fee could hurt sales.

“The purpose of this proposed ordinance is a good one and an important one,” said Chamber of Commerce Chair Richard Kalish. “It’s going to effect each one of us as consumers and each one of us as business owners.”

When the county first enacted their plastic bag ban last year, all of the impacts on local businesses were speculation, Kalish said. Now that the ordinance has been in effect for two months, the Chamber of Commerce is asking the city to meet with the 40 businesses closest to San Rafael to learn how the ordinance has affected them.

“We need to fashion the ordinance in a way that the burden [on small businesses] will be minimized,” Kalish said.

‘Go Forward and the Cities Will Follow’

Several cities are eager to join in on the ban. In 2008, Fairfax became the first town in Marin County to ban plastic bags. The issue was approved by voters after a lawsuit threatened a proposed ordinance supported by the Town Council.

Mill Valley passed a resolution affirming their support of a similar ordinance, once the county’s lawsuit is resolved. Tiburon, Ross and Sausalito are also waiting out the appeal before drafting ordinances. Over 40 cities in California, including Mill Valley and Sausalito, already banned take-out food containers, according to the staff report.

Several grocery stores, including and , already exclusively use paper bags for their products.

“The general thought in August was ‘go forward [with the ordinance] and the cities will be right behind you,’” said Greg Brockbank, who sat on the City Council when the ban was first discussed. “It just seems to me that not only is it the right thing to do, but it sends a really good message.”

A long legal battle might still be averted. Last year, the California Supreme Court before passing a law that prohibited stores from distributing plastic carryout bags.

Mayor Gary Phillips hopes to avoid a lawsuit, but supports moving forward with the ordinance.

“There’s 28 million bags in one year in Marin County alone,” he said. “You do have to stop and pause and think, ‘Gee those bags really are going to be with us a long time.’”