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By Laura Fouquete
On Thursday, the San Diego City Council announced the possibility of a plastic bag ban for all of San Diego County that would take affect in Fall 2014. With this proposal, all plastic bags will be banned and paper bags will cost all consumers ten cents per bag. This proposal has once again sparked a heated debate among San Diegans, many of who agree with the change and welcome more sustainability efforts in the county.
The city of San Francisco led the United States in this environmental movement starting in 2007, when the SF city council banned the use of plastic bags in supermarkets and drug stores. In 2010, San Francisco expanded the ban on plastic/paper bags to all retailers, including department stores and even small boutiques. The rest of the country, including San Diego, is very far behind San Francisco in regards to environmental activism in city politics.
The San Diego City Council will vote on the proposal later this summer, but until then, many voters are chiming in. Those who oppose to the proposal are threatening to move their business out of San Diego County, into areas such as Poway or Escondido, which won’t impose costs on their customers. Because of this, opponents to the proposal argue that this change will cause a major decrease in the profits of local retailers and supermarkets. Supporters of the movement, however, predict that if San Diego passes the law, the local governments of surrounding areas will pass the law as well. Supporters view the ten cent cost as an incentive to use the reusable grocery bags many of us already own and perpetually forget on our way to the store. Using San Francisco as a model, San Diegans supporting the change also believe that the ten cent cost and ban of plastic bags will not take as large of a toll on local businesses as opponents say it will.
Others argue that this change is not in the interest of the environment, but that is really in the interest of extra profit by big chain stores. Neighborhood Market Association President Mark Arabo says “Corporate giants would be making a lot of money on the backs of the working families, really on the backs of all Californians.” Many opponents to the movement, such as Arabo, are criticizing the intentions of those who pitched the change to the City Council. However, the intention of the movement is for customers to use reusable bags when shopping for groceries. If all of the customers at a certain supermarket brought and used their own reusable bags, the supermarket chain wouldn’t be making extra profit off of them anyway because the customers wouldn’t need to purchase the ten cent paper bags.
Many insist that San Diego County is behind the rest of the cities in California in regards to sustainability, and this is the first step to changing that. The new law might take a bit of getting used to, but ultimately, if the proposal is passed, San Diego could be more environmentally friendly. The final decision will be announced later this year.
