Laguna Beach looks to ban all plastic film bags in grocery stores

Laguna Beach will explore the feasibility of banning all plastic film bags in its grocery stores at the recommendation of the city’s environmental sustainability committee.

The committee looked into the matter at the local and state level in April, and its review identified a recyclability gap.

“What they did is they looked at the city’s 2012 ordinance, which is a ban on plastic bags, and they looked at the 2021 environmental program banning takeaway bags,” Jeremy Frimond, an assistant to the city manager, said. “They wanted to see if there was a recyclability gap between those two ordinances, particularly amongst state legislation that had been adopted in between both of the city’s ordinances. Is there a loophole in our current ordinance?”

Reusable grocery bags must have a handle and a volume of at least 15 liters, and they should be designed for at least 125 uses, per Senate Bill 270, the state’s ban on single-use carryout bags.

The council voted unanimously to have city staff study the issue and, if feasible, bring back an ordinance amendment prohibiting plastic bags in grocery stores. Frimond said the city would need to conduct fiscal and legal analysis, as well as reach out to stakeholders about a proposed ordinance amendment.

John Ehlers, a member of the environmental sustainability committee, said the panel’s work aimed to close a loophole that reduced the city’s efforts concerning plastic bag pollution to irrelevance.

“In 2012, the city of Laguna Beach took a bold stand against a problem that the rest of the world was only beginning to wake up to,” Ehlers told the council. “The plastic film bags are a major environmental hazard. A plastic film bag, like the ones currently being distributed by some of Laguna Beach’s large food retailers, will not decompose when it ends up in a landfill.

“A plastic film bag is not able to be recycled by any waste hauler operating in our area. A plastic film bag that mistakenly ends up in the recycling stream will jam the sorting machines at recycling centers, putting workers at risk and bringing their work to a stop. Perhaps most importantly, a plastic film bag that escapes into our coastal environment poses a mortal danger to any marine animal that is unfortunate enough to encounter it.”

Laguna Beach’s stance on plastics has been consistent. In 2021, the neighborhood and environmental protection plan included a single-use plastics ban. The city recently issued a balloon ban, too.

Mike Beanan, of Laguna Bluebelt Coalition, asserted that the plastics industry worked around disposable plastic bag bans by making bags heavier and thicker to qualify them as reusable.

“The spirit behind Laguna’s ban on bags in 2012 hasn’t changed,” Beanan added. “Our community still values the environment, and we have a culture of sustainability that does us great credit. But in addition to always making progress towards doing better to the environment, we must be vigilant that the progress we’ve already made isn’t eroded behind it.”