San Jose one-use bag fees

Congratulations to the citizens of San Jose for having a city council with the vision to become the largest city in the nation to ban most paper and plastic shopping bags. Not only did the the city take those steps last night, but they brought along other cities in the county with them, the San Jose Mercury reports this morning.

Let's hope now that the history doesn't repeat itself like it did in Seattle recently, where the American Chemistry Council, the lobbying arm of the plastics industry, spent $1.4 million to first put on the ballot a measure to require voter approval, and then defeat the ballot measure that would have imposed a 20-cent per disposal bag tax. The money was used, frankly, to buy a campaign to confuse and scare voters. The opposition, vastly outgunned, spent only $80,000 to try to get the referendum passed. (By comparison, all eight candidates for mayor on the same Seattle ballot spent a combined $1 million. So in the city's context, it was big money, and contributors included Dow Chemical, ExxonMobil and plastic bag manufacturers.)

The plastics industry has aggressively challenged bans elsewhere in court, including Oakland, where a ban was put on hold after the plastics industry filed a lawsuit challenging the city's ban on plastic bags.

Will that replay itself in San Jose?

The American Chemistry Council has not been silent.

If you ever wondered how those plastic bags get into the ocean, where they are floating in a giant island twice the size of Texas and being slowly eaten by sea life (and later, by us) a new study released in California this week sheds some light.

The environmental group Save the Bay estimates that 1 million plastic bags end up in San Francisco Bay annually. But before that even, they end up in creeks and storm drains. In one day, the group collected 15,000 plastic trash bags from 10 trash "hot spots," the San Jose Mercury News reports.

The study comes as San Jose is considering a city ordinance to end the distribution of free single-use bags, both plastic and paper, and require residents to switch to reusable bags. A similar measure failed in Seattle earlier this year, after the chemical industry spent  big money lobbying against it.

-- Rita Hibbard

So Seattle residents were swayed by Big Chemical money in an Aug. 18 ballot measure on whether one-use bags should be subject to fees. But San Jose is moving closer to becoming the largest American city to ban not only plastic shopping bags - but also most paper ones, reports the San Jose Mercury News. Under the proposal, grocery stores and big-box retailers would be prohibited from giving out plastic bags. Paper bags would be allowed, but only for a fee.

The San Jose City Council will now take up the issue as soon as November, thanks to a unanimous recommendation Monday by a four-member council committee. If approved it would take effect in 2011.

The American Chemistry Council has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars working to defeat bans and fees in other cities and other groups have filed lawsuits on behalf of the plastic industry. In Seattle, the group spent more than $1 million, noted seattlepi.com columnist Joel Connelly, who urges the city's residents to get even, not mad.  Let's see how this one goes down in San Jose.