LA City Council Approves Ban On Single-Use Plastic Bags
LOS ANGELES (CBS) — The Los Angeles City Council Wednesday approved a proposal to ban single-use plastic bags across the city.
The ban was approved 13-1 and will affect 7,500 grocery stores in the city.
Large retailers will have six months to phase out the bags, while small retailers would have one year. Paper bags would also cost customers 10 cents.
City Councilman Eric Garcetti, who recently announced his candidacy for the mayor of L.A., told KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO
less than 5 percent of the bags used across the city ever reach a recycling bin.
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"These plastic bags clog our landfills, they clog drainage systems, they litter neighborhoods, and go out to the ocean too where they cause damage to marine life," said Garcetti.
Large grocery stores will have six months to enact the ban. Smaller stores will have a year to begin charging customers for the bags.
Other Southland cities such as Santa Monica and Long Beach already have similar bans in place.
Roughly two billion plastic bags and 400 million paper bags are distributed throughout the city every year.
Once in effect, Los Angeles will be the largest U.S. city to enact a plastic bag ban.
