The supermarkets and major markets in unincorporated Santa Barbara will soon be offering paper bags only at 10 cents apiece after the Board of Supervisors narrowly approved a ban on single-use plastic bags. The cities of Santa Barbara and Carpinteria have already enacted bans of their own, and Goleta has one in the hopper. Supervisor Peter Adam from Orcutt took exception to the ban, complaining it was an unfair imposition on residents of the landlocked North County. Bag ban adherents have tied their arguments to the damage plastic bags do to the marine environment. Santa Maria Supervisor Steve Lavagnino objected to the idea of a government-imposed ban in general, commenting that such acts are more typical to “third world countries” and “dictatorships.” The actual language of the county’s bag ban will be hammered out later this summer.

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