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August 24, 2020
Sign and share the Climate Coalition Petition
CLICK HERE To review all 40 recommendations our coalition submitted last week to the Supervisors (42 pages with some extensive rationale and citations)
CLICK HERE To learn all the ways to comment on this for the VC2040 General Plan. Please email your concerns to Susan Curtis <[email protected]> no later than Monday, August 31, 3:30 p.m. Comments could be very influential endorsing a plan to phase out single-use plastic and plastic bags. Here is what the Climate Coalition proposed, but if you have more to say about it, all the better.
1 NEW Policy PFS – Single Use Plastics and Plastic Bags. The County shall phase out single use plastics and plastic bags by January 1, 2023, for County facilities and contracts, and by January 1, 2024, for all businesses and organizations. CAP
RATIONALE: Added to address an overlooked source of atmospheric and environmental pollution on a fast timeline.
2 NEW Program PFS – Phasing Out Single Use Plastics and Plastic Bags. The County shall develop and implement an equitable strategy to phase out products made from polystyrene and single-use plastics, including plates, bowls, cups, utensils, straws, foam containers, and other foodware items and plastic bags and to ensure that materials used for disposable products are recyclable or compostable. CAP
RATIONALE: Added to determine the costs, benefits, and details for a phase-out along with green business opportunities for reuse, recycling or composting. Single-use plastic products and packaging, which are increasingly made from fracked natural gas, are a significant market for fossil fuel products whose extraction is associated with fugitive methane, a potent GHG. The trash is piling up everywhere, including in county creeks, streams, estuaries, and ocean waters, negatively impacting county finances as well as air and water quality, public health, wildlife, climate, and fishing industries. Local governments spend millions on litter cleanup and abatement. Rates of asthma and other respiratory illnesses are greater in communities near production facilities, highways used for shipping, and incinerators or landfills. A surge of single-use products is resulting from the pandemic including in grocery stores where refill stations and reusable bags are disallowed. Such products must be regulated in such a way as to be wholly reused, recycled or composted.
A two to three year timeline is urgent to reverse the accumulation of plastic trash in the environment and is being enacted in some municipalities with high tourist business. Because of the impact on food service costs and petroleum industry push-back, a study is the best route to fully understand the barriers to recycling, comparative impacts of alternatives including different resin types and compostable materials, challenges and opportunities related to consumer use of reusable containers, and economic impacts to businesses. It may be possible to partner with LA County and our cities to contract with UCLA’s Luskin Center for such a study. A plan to phase out of these products can happen quickly. It requires county leadership.
