Plastic Bags Are Lame

At last week’s city council meeting for the Chula Vista City Council meeting, councilmember Steve Castaneda persisted in moving for a citywide ban on plastic bags. “ I end up with a stack of them in my pantry, and I just don’t know what to do with them. I use some as trash bags and so forth, but you always have more than you need,” said Castaneda just before his five-minute presentation on the benefits of banning the bags.

The week before, the council preferred there be a “plan before we ban” approach, so Castaneda gave a PowerPoint presentation to inform the council further on the negative impacts of plastic bags.

The presentation included the dangers bags pose to marine life and to the environment. Castaneda also listed some countries that banned or are pushing to ban plastic bags, such as Israel, Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Taiwan and Singapore. He mention how Boston and Oakland are proposing similar bans, following San Francisco’s ban in 2007.

After the presentation, Mayor Cheryl Cox informed the rest of the council that most large grocers offer a recycling bin for used plastic bags.

Next up, maybe the council will look into sacking the use of plastic water bottles that are placed at their seats before each meeting.

To see archived footage of Chula Vista’s city council meetings, go to chulavistaca.gov and select the link to city council.