Judge issues injunction against plastic bag ban

Photo courtesy Planet Ark

By Jeff Shuttleworth

April 19, 2008

A judge who reviewed an Oakland ordinance that would have banned plastic shopping bags has told the city to bag it.

In an injunction against the ordinance that he issued late Thursday, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch said that the city failed to conduct a full review of how the ban would affect the environment.

The Oakland City Council approved the plastic bag ordinance last July 17 and it was scheduled to go into effect on Jan. 17, but city officials delayed enforcing it pending a hearing and Roesch’s ruling on a lawsuit filed by the Coalition to Support Plastic Bag Recycling last August.

The group includes plastic bag manufacturers and recyclers and individuals.

A similar ban on plastic bags took effect in San Francisco on Nov. 20 and is still in place.

Oakland City Attorney spokesman Alex Katz said today that his office will ask the City Council next week whether its members want to contest Roesch’s ruling or do a full environmental review of the ordinance.

Michael Mills, the attorney for the Coalition to Support Plastic Bag Recycling, said he believes that the city’s recommended alternatives, such as compostable plastic bags and paper bags are at least equally as harmful to the environment as plastic bags and possibly more harmful.

Mills said the manufacturing process for paper bags causes air pollution and water pollution and consumes more fuel to truck because they’re bulkier and weigh more than plastic bags.

He said they also take up more space in landfills.

In his ruling, Roesch said, “It is because of that evidence in the record and the unanimity of the uncertainty whether paper bags are less (or more) environmentally friendly than plastic bags that the city cannot assert that there is ‘no possibility’ of any significant environmental effect caused by the ban.”

In a statement, Keith Christman, senior director of the American Chemistry Council’s plastics division, said, “Like many who have been waiting for this decision, we are pleased with the judge’s ruling.”

Christman said, “Banning plastic bags would dramatically increase energy use, double greenhouse gas emissions and increase waste. Recycling plastic bags is the right approach and makes plastic bags the environmentally responsible choice.”

He said, “We encourage the city to help Oakland residents improve the recycling of plastic bags consistent with AB 2449, California’s state-wide recycling program,” said Christman.

Christman said, “Plastics are a valuable resource – too valuable to waste — and we believe effective implementation of the state’s recycling program is the best and fastest way to steward environmental resources and reduce litter by recycling these bags.”

Mills said internal e-mails between Oakland officials last year indicate that they admit that compostable plastic bags aren’t any better for the environment than are regular plastic shopping bags.

Mills said he believes Oakland officials only approved the ordinance for “feel-good public relations spin.”

FCJ Editor

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