11/9/2011
Glendale might soon follow in the footsteps of Los Angeles County and a number of other cities throughout the state that prohibited the use of plastic bags at key retail stores.
The City Council will determine on Tuesday whether to pass a law that is similar to the one that lately went into effect for unincorporated sections of L.A. County. That measure, which will affect over 2,000 stores by January of 2012, prohibits the use of plastic bags and requires the retailers to levy a 10-cent surcharge for each paper bag.
In other cities like Pasadena, they already have started to draft their own bans to be in pace with the county. Burbank officials have already indicated that they may follow their lead.
Public Works Director Steve Zurn, said, “The negative impact to the environment as a result of these bags motivates us to ban plastic bags.” He also said that officials visualize a rule that will prevent all retailers, from drug stores to grocery stores, from using these plastic bags.
Officials in Glendale started pushing for a plastic bag ban three years ago. However, as the legal challenges against other cities began, City Hall slipped into a wait-and-see mode.
Save the Plastic Bag Coalition, an advocacy organization, filed a lawsuit against Manhattan Beach after it prohibited the use of plastic bags, claiming that the city did not first commission an Environmental Impact Report on potential impacts of the new measure.
While the argument of the plastics group prevailed at the Los Angeles County Superior Court level, the ruling was later reversed by the state Supreme Court. If the Glendale City Council approves a plastic bags ban, the city would piggyback onto the Environmental Impact Report of the county.
