Council Nixes Plastic Bag Ban

Three of the five San Clemente City Council members shot down a single-use plastic grocery bag ban in town, citing costs to the city and consumers, a lack of economic analysis and a preference for education and persuasion over force of law.

"To me, an outright ban says to our community that, 'you don't obviously understand the issue well enough, so we're going to remove that choice from you," said Councilman Tim Brown. "I'm not comfortable with the economic impact of this."

Chris Hamm, Bob Baker and Tim Brown overruled Lori Donchak and Jim Evert Tuesday to shoot down efforts to write up an ordinance to ban the bags. Staffers said the process would cost the city about $15,000 to pay fees to develop and file an environmental document.

The potential ban would have aimed to encourage the use of reusable bags not only by banning the plastic bags, but by charging a few cents for each paper bag.

Proponents of the ban, which included the city's appointed Coastal Advisory Commission and the local chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, cited the tens of thousands of bags that litter the city's coastline, watersheds, sewers and gutters as reason enough to get rid of the bags, which they say are mostly not recycled and harm sea life.

Some residents, however, spoke against the ban, saying the bags were more sanitary and took less energy to manufacture than canvas and paper bags.

"Cotton bags and paper bags are a far greater burden to the environment and landfills," said resident Kirk Kegel.

He pointed out that many use plastic bags two times for trash, food or to pick up dog feces.

But Ken Nielsen, a professional fisherman, said he was adamantly in favor of the ban. Traveling in a boat along the San Clemente coast, he said rain washes tons of plastic bags into the sea.

"I've lived in San Clemente for a long time; I've made my living off the ocean since I was 14," he said. "After a rain, all the way to L.A. I travel through this kind of plastic suspended in the water."

Though not enough will on the San Clemente City Council exists for a local bag ban, the State of California has three bills wending their way through the legislature meant to regulate plastic bags, said Assistant City Engineer Tom Bonigut.