The start of the holiday season, and recent hype about the possibility of lead in reusable grocery bags, has done little to deter lawmakers from moving forward with proposals designed to increase reusable bag use. Here are a few of note:
Little Rock, Arkansas
Sen. Denny Altes has prefiled a measure for next year’s legislative session that would prohibit larger stores from providing plastic grocery bags to customers. The Reusable Shopping Bag Act, would allow the use of paper bags and would require the sale of reusable grocery bags at stores of more than 10,000 square feet with gross annual sales of $2 million or more. Despite the proposed ban not extending to smaller stores, they too can support the bill by reselling printed reusable bags.
Marin County, California
Supervisor Charles McGlashan’s years-long drive to ban plastic bags at Marin retail establishments in appears headed for approval. Officials say the county is on the brink of banning plastic and imposing a 5-cent charge on paper bags to encourage use of reusable bags at outlets including unincorporated area grocery stores.
California is already one of the most progressive states in the reusable shopping bag movement. San Francisco became the first California city to ban single-use plastic bags in 2007, and others followed suit, including Palo Alto, Malibu, Manhattan Beach and, most recently, Los Angeles County.
Long Beach, California
The City Council voted 6-2 Tuesday to have the city attorney draft an ordinance banning carryout plastic bags at Long Beach stores. The ordinance will prohibit Long Beach’s large grocery and other stores from providing so-called “single-use” plastic bags to customers. Stores will be allowed to provide paper bags to customers for 10 cents each and will also have to provide reusable carryout bags, such as those made of cloth or plastic, either for sale or free.
Rome, Italy
Italy’s environment minister says there are no plans to extend a grace period for the continued use of plastic shopping bags, which will be banned Jan. 1. The ban, first proposed in 2007, was originally scheduled to become law on Jan. 1, 2010, but the government postponed it for a year.
