Dive Brief:
- Huntington Beach, CA is repealing its already instituted plastic bag ban, which came with a 10-cent charge on paper bags.
- When the City Council voted 6-1 to repeal Huntington Beach’s two-year-old bag ordinance, the community of about 200,000 became the first in the U.S to repeal a bag ban already in effect.
- The repeal comes in the midst of a debate over whether California should adopt a statewide plastic bag ban, which citizens will soon vote on in a 2016 referendum.
Dive Insight:
California is known for its firm eco-friendly stands, particularly its strong voice calling for cleanup of plastics that pollute oceans and harm marine life. But one Californian, City Councilman Mike Posey, said the plastic bag ban is largely what motivated him to run for his current position.
"That was the first step of the slippery slope of our nanny government encroaching and trying to micromanage our lives," said Posey to Plastics News.
A registered Republican, Posey said the statewide referendum is good for California because residents will be able to make their own decision.
"If the voters, the majority of the California voters, conclude that they need parenting in their shopping habits, then so be it. But it’s not government’s decision to make,” he said.
However, Posey's retaliation against the bag ban comes at a time when the state of California is also trying to reach 75% recycling by 2020 — a goal that may be hard to reach with governments that are not doing everything possible to support it.
