 Malibu says bye-bye to plastic bags! On Monday, the City Council voted to banish single-use plastic bags AND plastic-like compostable bags at all retail stores big and small. And to encourage the use of reusable bags, the Malibu City Council also directed its staff to research fees for paper bags.
In six months, grocery stores, restaurants, pharmacies and city facilities will have to comply or face a fine of up to $1,000. Smaller vendors will have up to a year. Smaller retailers will get a year to de-plastic-bag their stores.
Since the ban refers to plastic bags given out at point-of-sale, it appears that the flimsier plastic bags available at produce sections of grocery stores will still be permitted.
By passing the ordinance, Malibu beat out the City of Santa Monica, which is also poised to ban plastic bags soon. The Santa Monica City Council directed its staff to draft an ordinance to ban plastic bags back in February, but has yet to actually pass the ordinance.
According to the City of Malibu's website, both plastic and compostable one-use bags were banned "since there are no Southern California facilities that can recycle the compostable types." Santa Monica, too, plans to ban compostable bags, citing both the lack of recycling facilities and the potential harm to marine life. In contrast, San Francisco's bag ban applies only to plastic bags; NoCal does have some industrial composting facilities that can break down compostable one-use bags.
Earlier: Bring Your Own Bag
Photo courtesy of envirowoman
In case you missed the news, the city of L.A. is aiming to drastically reduce its trash. The goal: A 70% recycling rate by 2015, eventually getting to zero waste within 2 decades. Doable? I hope so, because landfilling's costing us a lot of money -- and we're running out of room.
L.A.'s Zero Waste Plan, also known as SWIRP (Solid Waste Integrated Resources Plan), kicked off last August with a number of public outreach efforts. So far, we've had numerous regional workshops and two big public Zero Waste Conferences.
From those efforts, the city's come up with 12 guiding principles for the zero waste effort, which will be used to create an action plan to eliminate landfilling -- after which we'll actually start taking action. Yes, it's a very long process, a.k.a. "a 6-year stakeholder-driven planning effort."
But for now, the public's invited to a third Citywide Zero Waste conference (PDF), where said 12 guiding principles will be announced and "confirmed":
When: Saturday, May 3, 8:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Where: The Center at Cathedral Plaza, 2nd Fl. Ballroom, 555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles
RSVP: Call Vikki Zale at (310) 822-2010 or email vikkizale@aol.com
In exchange for your time and input, you'll get complimentary meals and free parking -- though really, de-car-ing's recommended. Early birds can get there before the rush for an optional Zero Waste Film Festival from 7:30 a.m. - 8:30 a.m.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the California Assembly bill that proposed a 25 cent "plastic carryout bag impact fee" on each single-use plastic shopping bag (AB 2829) died in committee. The weaker bill (AB 2058) that relied heavily on voluntary bag reduction measures, however, did make it through.
Although AB 2058 is weaker, it does allow for a per-bag fee if voluntary targets are not met. If a store fails to decrease plastic bag use by 70% by July 1, 2012, a 15 cents per bag fee would kick in.
And that fee will likely go up! According to Jessica Belsky at Heal the Bay, Assemblymember Lloyd Levine (D-Van Nuys), who authored AB2058, has agreed to revise the legislation to up the fee to 25 cents per bag, and to take out language that would preempt local governments from placing their own fees on plastic bags.
AB2058's now been referred to the Assembly Committee on Appropriations. If the bill makes it through that committee, it will then go to the Assembly floor.
Get into the habit of carrying reusable bags now, to save yourself hassles later --
Photo courtesy of envirowoman
If you do one thing for this Earth Day, I'd advise this for your own sanity as well as financial benefit -- in addition to environmental goodness: Get a Bring Your Own Bag system in place once and for all, so you're never caught empty handed.
First, let me go into why this one action will prevent stress and save you money. Then I'll show you how easy it is to be bag-ready at all times.
Plastic bags are slowly becoming a relic in California. The disposables have already been banned in San Francisco and Oakland, for one. Santa Monica's well on its way to enacting its own ban. And Bakersfield, Berkeley, and Santa Cruz are considering similar measures. Even the Calif. assembly's considering a bag fee.
Besides the state and local government initiatives, there's the corporate ones. As of this Earth Day, Whole Foods will no longer offer plastic bags. IKEA will getting rid of all disposable bags, period, come August 2008. And while most grocery stores will still be saying "paper or plastic" for a while, many of these -- including Ralphs -- will still give you a nickel back for bringing your own bag.
So adapt now to prevent headaches -- and to avoid getting nickeled and dimed -- later. Here's how:
1. Put most of your reusable bags in the vehicle you use to get to and from your grocery shopping. For most of you, this will be your car. For the more intrepid of you, this'll be that trailer attached to your bike, or the "basket on wheels" type thing you roll over to your farmers' market. This vehicle needs to be where the bags "belong."
Do NOT have a spot in the house where you keep the reusable bags; not having a designated in-house spot will remind you to always "return" the bags to your vehicle after you unload your groceries.
 2. Keep one minimizable bag in your purse or other favorite bag, like a laptop bag or backpack. Organic cotton tote bags are great, but they're rather bulky, and it's the rare person who'll tote one of those around everywhere. Instead, invest in one bag that converts into a teeny object, and keep that in your purse or bag as a standard item, like a lipstick or condoms.
The one downside of these bags is that they tend to be made of synthetic materials. This is why I advise you just get one of these -- and reuse it forever and maybe even pass it down to future generations :P A few options:
flip & tumble. (above left) Made of ripstop nylon, this cute bag can be "flipped" into a cute ball-shaped object -- great for an impromptu game of catch or for juggling, if you have a couple of them.
 Envirosax. Made of polyester, Envirosax fold up into what the company describes as "the size of a piece of sushi." This is the bag that sits folded and buttoned up at the bottom of my purse. I unfurl it when I need it -- like I did today at Co-opportunity.
ChicoBags. (below left) Made of nylon, ChocoBags can be stuffed into its "integrated pouch." The bags come with a carabiner, so you can attach the pouch to your beltloop, if that look jives with your personal style. ChicoBags also notes on its website that it has a recycling program to repurposed old bags into door mats, dog beds and prayer flags -- but I can't find any info about where to send the old bags on the website.
I know the boys are gonna say they don't carry purses (though I've noticed that more of you guys do these days) and usually don't carry other bags either. I feel your pain -- and encourage you to use this awesome business idea of mine: Create a bag that folds flat into the shape of a short stack of bills, which can be fit into any regular wallet -- maybe even a recycled Jimi.
Make millions as plastic bag bans gain popularity around the world, then email and thank me --
Top photo courtesy of envirowoman
Forget to bring your own bag? That eco-sin could cost you a quarter in the future (unless you go for paper, not plastic). A California Assembly bill, if passed, would put a 25 cent "plastic carryout bag impact fee" on each single-use plastic shopping bag given out at large grocery stores and pharmacies statewide.
AB 2829, introduced by Assemblymember Mike Davis (D-Los Angeles), proposes using the collected fees to on litter prevention and reduction efforts. If passed, the bill "would mark the most aggressive action by any state legislature to curb the proliferation of plastic bags and limit their negative impacts on the marine environment, local economies and quality of life for millions of citizens," according to Santa Monica-based environmental organization Heal the Bay.
AB 2829 does have some competition, namely from a much weaker bill, AB 2058, introduced by Assemblyman Lloyd Levine (D-Van Nuys). AB 2058 relies mostly on voluntary reduction measures -- and is quite similar to the voluntary plastic bag reduction measure that the L.A. County Board of Supervisors passed earlier this year.
Surprisingly, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors have endorsed the tougher AB 2829. Perhaps the board regrets its past decision -- or perhaps they'd like someone else to enact the rules so they don't have to personally face the wrath of the plastic bag industry....
The bill goes before the Cali Assembly's Committee on Natural Resources on Monday. Is your assemblymember on it? Mine is, and will be hearing from me asking her to vote yes. You can also email a letter of support to the committee members via Heal the Bay.
Photo courtesy of envirowoman
 Phone book haters: Let's try a collective experiment to stop Yellow Book deliveries -- because we might win this one.
After reading my post, Brad Hole -- the guy behind those eco-friendly, recycled binders, notebooks and CD covers at Sustainable Group -- sent Yellow Book a quick message via this Web form asking to be taken off the delivery list.
Kudos to Yellow Book, because Brad got an e-mail back just an hour and 15 minutes later from Cate Johnson, call center specialist, that said: Thank you for contacting Yellow Book USA. We have processed your request to be on our do not deliver list for the Seattle directory. For your records, the incident number is [number removed]. Have a good day!
Because of the fact that many phone book companies hire independent contractors who don't always stick to the delivery lists, I'm not certain that Brad's Yellow Book deliveries will really stop once and for all -- but here's hoping!
So, try the same yourself. Send a quick note to Yellow Book asking to be taken off the list. Then see if the deliveries indeed stop! I'll do an update post later asking all of you for a report back on the results of this de-phone-booking experiment.
I know most of you don't want to wait on the phone trying to get through to customer service about getting off the lists, so here are the Web forms/e-mails for some of the other companies:
Good luck!
Wow -- A bag tax really, really works! In a show of how cheap Americans really can be when something shows up as a line item on their receipts, IKEA reports that, since it started charging customers 5 cents per bag, disposable plastic bag use has gone down more than 92 percent in U.S. stores.
And now, IKEA's gonna get rid of that last 8 percent. As of Oct. 2008, IKEA will no longer offer disposable plastic bags at checkout. No, paper bags won't replace the plastic bags. Customers will need to bring their own bag, buy an IKEA reusable bag for 59 cents, or go bagless.
We all know the enviro-benefits of bagging the bag -- but I'm more interested in looking at how IKEA's benefited from this progressive de-bagging policy:
1. Get lots of press attention. IKEA's been all over the news as a progressive, enviro-conscious company due to its anti-plastic-bag program.
2. Have customers pay for your donations to nonprofits. IKEA's basically turning bag fees directly into socially conscious PR, by sending all the nickels collected to American Forests, a nonprofit focused on environmental conservation. Simply by making customers pay for something that used to be "free," IKEA now gets to brag that it's donated more than $300,000 to American Forests.
3. Sell more stuff. IKEA's making money on its reusable bags! Sure, the money from disposable plastic bags goes to American Forests, but IKEA keeps the money for its 59-cent big blue reusable shopping bags. According to IKEA, sales of these reusable bags are expected to exceed company projections by more than 10 times.
Why more companies don't follow IKEA's tactic, I don't know, especially since the anti-plastic-bag move doesn't seem to have hurt IKEA's business any. Meanwhile, Wal-Mart seems to have a new press release about another green move it's making every day -- but hasn't yet made a move bag the bag....
Top photo by Siel; bottom photo courtesy of IKEA
Green advice givers are all talking about diapers this week. Both Slate's Green Lantern and Salon's Pablo tackle the subject -- and give conflicting advice.
The Lantern says that cloth diapers are greener -- but that he uses disposables themselves due to time management issues, and will consider switching to cloth or flushable gDiapers later on.
Pablo too says cloth diapers are greener -- but is not so keen on the gDiapers -- and recommends diaper services that'll launder the dirty diapers for you.
In an earlier column, Umbra of Grist concluded that "the disposable vs. reusable diaper fight is in a stalemate for the foreseeable future," and suggests diaperless parenting -- an option Pablo deems impractical.
I'm more psyched than ever that I don't have to deal with diaper issues, but having read all these diaper articles in detail, Pablo's option sounds like the most practical green option, assuming you can afford a diaper washing service -- something you likely can do if you can afford to buy disposable diapers at a buck a pop.
Any green parents got more practical advice or stories?
Photo of baby in gDiaper by Donna D via Flickr
 How much more does 100% post-consumer recycled paper cost? Earlier this month, Green Cities California -- which includes L.A. and 10 California cities and counties -- pledged to make a complete switch to 100% post-consumer recycled copy paper -- though with no set date for finalizing the switch. I'm support the initiative, but I started wondering what the financial implications of this green decision would be.
After all, even though making post-consumer recycled paper doesn't kill trees and saves lots of energy, the eco-friendly paper market still hasn't reached the scale to make it cost-competitive with virgin paper, as I found out the hard way through my research on green business cards.
Santa Monica couldn't tell me how much more the switch to 100% post-consumer recycled paper cost the city, partly because they made the switch back in 2004. Getting an accurate number would mean accounting for inflation, paper use reduction programs, structural changes in the city, etc., making calculations difficult.
Luckily -- at least for this numbers-crunching mission -- the city of L.A. hasn't made a full switch yet. Only 30% of the paper the city of L.A. uses is 100% post-consumer recycled. So I was able to find out what the cost difference of switching the rest of that paper would be from Gerald St.Onge, who does environmentally preferred purchasing for the city L.A.
St.Onge said that 100% post-consumer recycled paper would cost about 50% more than virgin paper. In fact, the reason L.A. hasn't gone all post-consumer recycled already is due to budgetary reasons -- not due to lack of availability, the reason Shannon Parry, an environment analyst for Santa Monica's Environmental Programs Division, pointed to.
"Right now we're tying to [make up] the difference in cost by paper reduction," St.Onge said. The higher cost of 100% post-consumer recycled paper is a bit of a chicken or the egg problem. Due to the added expense, government agencies, companies, and individuals don't buy more of it. But because not enough of it is bought, the recycled paper market doesn't grow as fast in scale to bring down those prices.
Although the city of L.A. hasn't set a deadline to complete the switch too all post-consumer recycled paper, Onge said "we're committed and we're doing everything we can to change all the commodities that are being purchased into environmentally-friendly products." There's reason to be hopeful: Along with the Green Cities California initiatives, L.A. City Council approved an Environmentally Preferable Purchasing statement and program last month, committing the city to opting for eco-friendly products whenever possible.
Image courtesy of Fuji Xerox
Still stuck at the paper or plastic conundrum? Go over to MSNBC's Battle of the Bags: Paper or Plastic, and you'll learn more than you ever wanted to know about the issue. This little web piece uses short surveys, videos, polls, and quizzes to exhaustively examine the bag issue -- to conclude that it's pretty much impossible to figure out whether a plastic or paper bag is better.
While Battle of the Bags doesn't push the reusable bag as strongly as I'd like -- though a montage of chic reusable bags is part of the piece -- hopefully more people will come to that conclusion after watching the piece.
One of the issues that MSNBC doesn't really cover is the fact that plastic bags wash out to the oceans and kill marine life -- which doesn't bode well, environmentally or financially, for L.A.'s tourism industry.
Battle of the Bags'll be personally useful for me, since every time I write about plastic bag bans and taxes happening around the world, I get one-sided comments and emails about how plastic bags are greener than paper bags. In the future, I'll just point them to MSNBC.
[Thanks to Jessica for the tip!]
Earlier:
Santa Monica a step closer to banning plastic bags
L.A. County's new anti-plastic bag legislation contains no ban or tax
Bring Your Own week: BYO Bag
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Malibu says bye-bye to plastic bags! On Monday, the City Council voted to banish single-use plastic bags AND plastic-like compostable bags at all retail stores big and small. And to encourage the use of reusable bags, the Malibu City Council also directed its staff to research fees for paper bags. 
Emerald City calendar