Home Pittsburg Pittsburg Seeks Public Comments on Retail Plastic Bag Ban

Pittsburg Seeks Public Comments on Retail Plastic Bag Ban

by ECT

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The City of Pittsburg is seeking public comments up until September 9 on an environmental analysis as the city is looking to move forward on considering a ban of retail plastic bags.

Under the policy, Pittsburg is proposing a citywide ordinance to stop the distribution of single-use plastic bags in grocery and retail stores. This would make it the first East Contra Costa city to consider the ban.

According to the notice,  the Pittsburg City Council is tentatively scheduled to consider the adoption of the item on September 16.

According to the CEQA Study (A 35-page document), recycled paper or reusable bags would be required to be made available to customers at a minimum charge of 10 cents per bag for the first year, and 25 cents per bag for the third year and beyond.

The proposed ordinance would include a $250 fine to penalize merchants who don’t comply. The ban does not include plastic bags used by restaurants, plastic garment bags, or bags in grocery stores used for fruits and vegetables.

The ban appears to create an incentive for residents of Pittsburg to move from paper and plastic bags to reusable bags which is sweeping California over the past two years.

According to Californians Against Waste, a total of 58 cities and counties have adopted ordinances of plastic bag bans while a total of 79 cities or counties are covered by these ordinances. By clicking here, it will provide you with a list and brief history of cities with the ordinances.

Anyone who wishes to comment on the findings of this environmental analysis must submit comments in writing to Kristin Pollot, Associate Planner of the Planning Department, at 65 Civic Avenue, Pittsburg CA 94565 or via email to [email protected] or by fax (925) 252-4814. Comments are due by 5pm on Monday Sept. 9.

The City Council will consider the item at its Sept. 16 meeting, with formal adoption slated for mid-October.

Source:
http://www.ci.pittsburg.ca.us/index.aspx?page=217

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6 comments

Martin Sep 2, 2013 - 5:36 am

Is this council for real? I think we have much bigger problems in Pittsburg than plastic bags being banned. What a joke!

Kim Moore Sep 2, 2013 - 11:50 am

Thin-wall plastic bags have the lowest total environmental impact of any type of carrier.

Brad Sep 2, 2013 - 9:50 pm

There is no reason for the Pittsburg City Council to make a decision on this. It (hopefully) is the desire of Pittsburg Council and Chamber of Commerce to provide a welcoming environment to new business – not already have policies in place to restrict it. The controversial opinion to ban plastic bags may be appropriate for progressive governments like Berkeley – but Pittsburg is not (yet) progressive and not in a place to dictate businesses on how they should operate in our city.

Myrdell Sep 5, 2013 - 11:42 pm

Plastic bags contribute to environmental blight, are damaging to marine wildlife, and consume resources in their production for what is essentially a throw-away product. Let’s be on the right side of this issue and a model for our sister cities in East County.

Trina Sep 8, 2013 - 5:29 pm

I agree, we should do our part. However, I would like to know what kind of penalties are placed on Keller Canyon Landfill for all the plastic bags littering Bailey Road and Hwy 4 by the city????

Kenji Freitas Sep 10, 2013 - 8:54 am

If we could get Allied Waste to accept plastic bags in their weekly recycle pickup, the problem would greatly be reduced. They claim it is not economically feasible to recycle these bags, but we are PAYING them to take our recycle! The recycle they get is sorted at the transfer station, why can’t they sort out the plastic bags and have a third party company pick them up? We pay them a LOT of money for this already.

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