The movement speaks to the growing concern among governments about
Hermes Birkin waste. Made from petroleum, the bags are ubiquitous, virtually never decompose and can be lifted off landfills by a gust of wind. Usually, they end up in streets, drains or the ocean, where plastic debris is said to kill more than 100,000 marine animals a year. That's enough to pain the conscience of any green-minded Californian. And civic leaders who like to tout their areas' clean streets are quickly deflated at the sight of rogue bags blowing in on a breeze. "The government really has woken up to how this is an issue," said Gary Boze, spokesman for the county's Department of Public Works. "We are such a large consumer of plastics, it almost requires that we give some attention to it." Compostable bags might sound like a convenient solution, but they require specific conditions to decompose. San Franciscans can throw out the bags, which are usually made from corn or potato starch, with their recyclable food waste in special curbside bins. Los Angeles County, however, does not offer curbside recycling. The city of L.A. offers it to some residents, but not for food waste. Also, only a handful of recycling facilities in the Los Angeles area can break down food waste and compostable bags, and they'd probably struggle to handle the load if all residents started using the eco-friendly bags.
"When you talk about making something compostable, it's great," said Neil Guglielmo, a division manager with the city's Bureau of Sanitation. "But the downside is: Can you then actually compost it? I'd hate to see
hermes birkin price end up having to go to a landfill." The city of Los Angeles does allow residents to throw out plastic bags with regular recycling. The discarded plastic is then pressed into planks to make benches, piers and backyard decks. But when compostable plastic is mixed with standard plastic, it makes the batch structurally unsound, experts and officials said. And the result can only be tossed into a landfill. There are two things wrong with the plastic bag ban imposed this week by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. One is that charging a small fee for carryout plastic bags is a better solution than a ban. Fees have hugely reduced the use of the bags in countries that charge them while offering an option to consumers. The other problem is that a patchwork of municipal laws is confusing to consumers and inefficient for large chain stores. Yet for both wrongs, the blame belongs not with the supervisors but with the Legislature, which pushed municipalities into this situation by passing one law that prohibited them from imposing fees on plastic bags until 2013, and rejecting another law that would have addressed this source of pollution on a statewide level.
Given the Legislature's bumbling and the continued damage caused by carryout bags, the board did the best thing it could. If more large municipalities follow its lead — particularly the city of Los Angeles — the grocery industry, which supports a statewide solution, might join in prodding the Legislature into action. One way or another, California should follow the lead of the more than 30 countries — and many more local governments — that have acted against
louis vuitton replica handbags , a list diverse enough to include Papua New Guinea, France, Botswana and China. People in these countries appear to be getting along just fine without the bags, which choke waterways, contribute to urban and wilderness litter, are the second-most-common source of trash on California's beaches and a key ingredient in the giant patches of plastic debris that are polluting the oceans. California's consumers need to understand that plastic bags are not as "free" as they seem; the cost is rolled into the price of the goods they buy. What's more, the state's taxpayers pay close to $25 million a year to rid streets, beaches, parks and waterways of the bags. Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich's objection to the county ban — that poor people won't be able to afford to pick up after their pets if they don't receive plastic bags from stores — is off base. Only carryout bags, which are responsible for most of the plastic bag trash, would be banned. The smaller bags in which people put their produce, and in which this newspaper is delivered, tend to be disposed of properly in recycling or trash bins and are not affected by the ban.
The state tried beefing up recycling efforts for carryout
replica louis vuitton handbags . It didn't work. Californians use more than 120,000 tons of the bags each year, and recycle 5% of them. Now the Legislature needs to take stronger action, through either a statewide fee or a statewide ban, to put an end to the growing patchwork of local regulations. An American found slain last month near Bogota reportedly had tried to smuggle cocaine by swallowing bags of the drug. La Prensa, El Espectador and El Tiempo newspapers of Bogota identified the victim as Stacy Walter Casio, 23, of Monroe, La. A medical report said 15 plastic bags of cocaine were found in Casio's stomach, the newspapers said. His body was found Sept. 22. He had been tortured, and his killers cut him open in a failed attempt to get the bags out, the newspapers said. Re "Plastic bags outlast proposed county ban," Jan. 23 Los Angeles County has demonstrated a commitment to addressing a significant menace to our quality of life plastic bag litter. The county's initiative requires benchmarks of a 30% reduction of plastic bags by 2010 and a 65% reduction by 2013, or an all-out ban will be seen as our most viable option. In an effort to change consumer preferences and reduce the number of bags, the county's Single-Use Bag Reduction and Recycling Program unites industry and environmentalists in employing tactics jgxsqzgj56, including aggressive promotion of reusable bags, consistent and provocative environmental outreach and, perhaps most promising, the implementation of a per-bag fee.
By adopting this program, the county anticipates 1.8 billion fewer bags circulating in 2010, and 3.9 billion by 2013 -- no small feat. If Angelenos want to see fewer
Lady Dior blowing in the wind, we need citizens urging their city officials to partner with the county in setting these firm benchmarks. We need media outlets committed to sustaining a public dialogue about the high cost and environmental effect of inappropriate bag disposal. I don't know what disgusts me more: the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors' spineless decision to not ban plastic bags outright, or its lame excuses as to why it opted for the weakest alternative. Putting the responsibility for cutting use of plastic bags in the hands of supermarkets and stores is ludicrous. They are the same entities that fought the proposed ban in the first place. As long as plastic bags are available, most shoppers will not bring their own bags. Yes, I bring my own bags, but I had to make a concerted effort to make it a habit. The goal of reducing plastic bag consumption by 65% (the equivalent of a D on a report card) by 2013 will not be met thanks to store clerks saying to customers, "Paper or plastic; we really encourage paper or bringing your own bag." The policy put San Francisco on a list of cities, such as Paris, and countries, including Bangladesh, Ireland, South Africa and Taiwan, that have either imposed a tax on plastic bags or outlawed them.
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