(A)
It is the intent of the County of Santa Cruz, in enacting this chapter, to eliminate the common use of plastic single-use carryout bags, encourage the use of reusable bags by consumers and retailers, and to reduce the consumption of single-use bags in general.
(B)
The County of Santa Cruz has an obligation to protect the environment, the economy, and public health. The County of Santa Cruz has a 75 percent waste reduction goal, which is to be reached by waste reduction, reuse, recycling, and composting. The County of Santa Cruz makes the following findings:
(1)
Globally, an estimated 500,000,000,000 to 1,000,000,000,000 petroleum-based plastic bags are used each year, which equals over 1,000,000 per minute, the production and use of which uses over 12,000,000 barrels of oil. The California Integrated Waste Management Board estimates that Californians use nearly 20,000,000,000 single-use plastic bags per year and discard over 100 plastic bags per second. Further, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that only five percent of the plastic bags in California and nationwide are currently recycled.
(2)
The production and disposal of plastic bags causes significant environmental impacts, including contamination of the environment, the deaths of thousands of marine animals through ingestion and entanglement, widespread litter and debasement of the urban environment, and increased waste disposal costs.
(3)
Most plastic carryout bags do not biodegrade, but instead persist in the environment for hundreds of years; rather than breaking down, they slowly break up through abrasion, tearing, and photo degradation into toxic plastic bits that contaminate soil and water, while entering the food web when animals inadvertently ingest these materials. Toxic substances present in plastics are known to cause death or reproductive failure in fish, shellfish, wildlife, and in the humans ingesting the fish.
(4)
Plastic bits absorb dangerous compounds such as dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), and other toxic materials present in ocean water. Plastics have been found to concentrate these toxic chemicals at levels of up to 1,000,000 times the levels found in seawater. Plastic bits have displaced plankton in the Pacific Gyre.
(5)
The U.S. Marine Mammal Commission estimates that 267 marine species have been reported entangled in or having ingested marine debris. Plastic can constrict the animals' movements or block their digestive system, killing the animals through starvation, exhaustion, or infection from deep wounds caused by tightening material.
(6)
According to Save Our Shores, a Santa Cruz based marine conservation nonprofit that conducts beach, river, and inland cleanups in the coastal regions of Santa Cruz, San Mateo, and Monterey Counties, from June 2007 to May 2011 they conducted over 400 cleanups where volunteers removed a total of 26,000 plastic bags. Unchecked, this material would have likely entered the marine environment of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
(7)
Plastic bags returned to supermarkets may be recycled into plastic lumber; however, a very low percentage of bags are actually returned. Recycling bags into lumber does not reduce the impact of making new plastic carryout bags.
(8)
Compostable plastic carryout bags, as currently manufactured, do not solve the problems of wildlife damage, litter, or resource use addressed by this chapter. Compostable carryout bags are designed to remain intact until placed in a professional compost facility, so they do not degrade quickly as litter or in a marine environment. Producing compostable bags consumes nearly as much fossil fuel as noncompostable bags. Mixing compostable bags with regular plastic bags prevents recycling or composting either of them. Therefore, there is no exemption in this chapter for compostable carryout bags.
(9)
According to Californians Against Waste, Californians pay up to $200.00 per household each year in State and Federal taxes to clean up litter and waste associated with single-use bags, on top of the $40.00 per household per year in hidden grocery costs to offset the expense of the nearly 1,000 "free" bags received from grocers.
(10)
Reusable bags are readily available from numerous sources and vendors. Many grocery and other retail establishments throughout the County of Santa Cruz already offer reusable bags for sale at a price as low as $0.25.
(11)
This chapter recognizes that there are energy and environmental consequences of using paper bags. While paper bags do not have the end-of-use impacts of plastic bags, they may use comparable or more energy and resources to manufacture. For this reason, a store charge on paper bags is indicated, as an incentive to reduce their use and encourage reusable bags. Paper bags that contain a minimum of 40 percent post-consumer recycled content have fewer negative impacts than virgin paper bags.
(12)
Paper shopping bags with 40 percent post-consumer recycled content are easily available, and such bags are in wide use by County of Santa Cruz merchants.
(13)
State law currently prohibits local jurisdictions from placing fees on single-use checkout plastic bags. Therefore, several California cities have adopted or are pursuing a ban as the most effective remaining means to eliminate the impacts these plastic bags cause. State law does not prohibit jurisdictions from placing a store charge on paper bags.
(Ord. 5103 § 1, 2011; Ord. 5291 § 17, 2019)