With no opposition, the county supervisors voted to endorse a couple of statehouse bills — Senate Bill 1053 and Assembly Bill 2236 — that would ban the use of plastic bags in supermarkets and retail operations in California.
Although the state legislature banned single-use plastic bags in 2016, a loophole in that law has allowed for the use of heavy-duty bags in their stead. As a result, CALPIRG activists told supervisors, California now finds itself awash in more plastic bags than before the 2016 bag ban went into effect.
Supervisor Joan Hartmann noted that the average human now consumes enough microplastics a year to make a credit card. The health impacts — cancer and endocrine disrupters — she said are issues with which the species has yet to come to terms.
Supervisor Steve Lavagnino asked what kind of bags shoppers could use if the proposed legislation were enacted; he was told paper. Supervisor Das Williams noted that paper bags were even worse than plastic ones from a climate change perspective. If he didn’t bring his own tote bag along, Williams said, he can usually manage to balance whatever items he’s buying on the way out the door. Either that, or one of his two children could help. “That’s why you have kids,” he explained.
