LA COUNTY: NOTHING BETTER TO DO?
LA COUNTY AND PLASTIC BAGS: NOTHING BETTER TO DO?
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LA COUNTY AND PLASTIC BAGS: NOTHING BETTER TO DO?

In an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, two Los Angeles County Supervisors, Yvonne Burke and Zev Yaroslavsky, argue that consumers should be charged a 25 cents tax for each plastic bag.

Regrettably, the Supervisors are spreading misinformation. They state:

About $375 million is spent in California on cleanups and other efforts to mitigate the environmental effect of disposable bags, costing each household about $200.

What nonsense! The population of California is 36.4 million. $375 million divided by 36.4 million is $10.30 per person. Are we to assume that each household has 20 people?

The Supervisors do not state in the article how the $375 million figure is calculated, but it is apparently the entire California litter cleanup budget - not just for plastic bags, but for everything. Why are they pinning the entire state litter cleanup budget on plastic bags?

Plastic bags are a small percentage of litter. Eliminating them won't save the state a penny because other litter will still need to be cleared from the same locations. Cigarette butts, paper cups, bottles, etc. In other words, the additional cost per person for cleaning up plastic bags is zero.

Plastic bags fly off the back of trash trucks. Whose fault is that? The Supervisors should address that problem instead of blaming it on law abiding consumers and the plastic bag manufacturers.

The Supervisors talk about marine life and imported oil used to make plastic bags.

Are large numbers of marine mammals and seabirds killed by plastic bags? No. The London Times has exposed this as a myth based on a typographical error. The report on which the myth is based referred to discarded nets, not plastic bags.

Are plastic bags made of imported oil? No. They are made of ethane which is a waste product extracted from domestically produced natural gas. If the ethane is not used to make plastic, it would need to be burned off which would produce greenhouse gases. Plastic bags are a wonderful use of a waste product.

The Supervisors criticize plastic bag manufacturers for trying to "protect their profits." No shame in that. This is not the Soviet Union.

The Supervisors say "think about protecting marine life." We say think about protecting human life. Destroying an American manufacturing industry and 4,000 jobs is not a decision to be taken lightly and should never be based on misinformation.

We are puzzled by the Supervisors' over-the-top obsession with plastic bags. County staff has spent thousands of hours on this matter. We believe that the Supervisors have been hijacked by anti-plastic bag activists.

This petty obsession with plastic bags is beginning to define the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. Doesn't Los Angeles have more pressing matters to deal with?
 
(Click here to read the Supervisors' article.)

 
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