It's been a good week for the environment as more cities embrace meaningful plastic bag reductions. (For a list of ineffective plastic bag reductions, see yesterday's blog post) In Southern California, Laguna Beach finalized their plastic carryout bag ban while Carpinteria and Ojai passed first readings of their own bag ordinances. Last night, or I should say this morning since the vote was at 2am, Austin, TX voted unanimously to pass a reusable bag ordinance. I like to call the Austin and Carpinteria efforts true 'reusable bag ordinances' because they phase out both plastic AND paper bags. It's an important distinction on how we need to shift away from a disposable society.
LATE ENTRY: thanks to Julie Lawson from the D.C. Chapter for the update that the bag fee for Prince Georges County in MD passed a big hurdle today to stay alive and active!
Congrats to the Surfrider Chapters involved in all four of those campaigns to help reduce the impacts of plastic bags! The Carpinteria and Ojai ordinances need a second vote to be fnalized but they are off to good starts. Here are a couple of photos from the Ojai City Council meeting with the Bag Monster and Bob Davidson from the Surfrider Foundation Ventura County Chapter:
