LA city council says no more single-use plastic bags

Los Angeleshas become the largest city in the United States to ban plastic bags.The Los Angeles City Council voted May 23 by a 13-1 vote on the ban. In the first phase large-chain supermarket and pharmacies will stop offering single-use plastic bags in six months. Six months later convenience stores will do the same, says Mark Murray, executive director for Californians Against Waste, in an interview.

“Now we have 49 cities or counties [in California] that have voted to ban bags,” Murray said. “That will reduce 2.7 billion bags.” He estimates California generates 14 billion bags annually. By contrast, recycling has diverted only about 3 percent of the bags. “A ban is much more successful than five years of effort with recycling,” Murray says.

Read the entire story at Waste360, another Penton web site.