PRESS ADVISORY FROM
Office of Councilmembers Nancy Nadel, District 3, and Jean Quan, District 4
June 22, 2007 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts:
- Nancy Nadel, Councilmember, District 3,(510) 238-7003
- Jean Quan, Councilmember,District 4, (510) 238-7004
- Marisa Arrona, Aide to Councilmember Nadel, (510) 238-7031
- Richard Cowan, Aide to Councilmember Quan, (510) 238-7041
- Carol Misseldine, Public Works Agency, (510) 238-6808
Plastic Bag Ban To Be Considered by OaklandCity Council Public Works Committee on June 26, 2007
Free Reusable Bags to be Distributed by Whole Foods Market
and the City at 10:00 a.m.Press Conference
Oakland, CA.At their 10:30 am meeting on June 26, 2007, the Oakland City Council Public Works Committee, chaired by Nancy Nadel, will consider an Ordinance to ban the use of non-biodegradable carry-out plastic bags at retail establishments in Oakland.
A press conference will be held prior to the Committee meeting, at 10:00 am on the steps of Oakland City Hall at which Councilmembers Nancy Nadel and Jean Quan, Ordinance co-sponsors, will highlight the need for this policy, and free re-usable bags will be distributed by Whole Foods Market and the Environmental Services Division of Oakland’s Public Works Agency.
“Californians use 19 billion plastic disposable bags each year, and throw away 600 every second,” said Councilmember Nadel. “These bags are made from oil, so reducing their use will serve the mission of the ‘Oil Independent Oakland by 2020’ Task Force that we established last year.”
Two million barrels of oil each day – 10% of U.S. oil consumption – is used to make plastic.
“The City pays dearly to clean up littered plastic bags that make their way to Oakland’s storm drains, creeks, LakeMerritt, and the Bay,” said Councilmember Jean Quan. “The City has a duty to protect the natural environment by reducing this source of plastic pollution.”
Plastic does not break down, but instead persists in the environment and enters the food chain when animals mistake plastic bits for food. Over a million birds and hundreds of thousands of marine mammals die each year from eating or becoming entangled in plastic.
The Ordinance under consideration has four primary aspects:
1)It bans the use of non-biodegradable plastic carry-out bags provided at the point of sale at retail establishments in Oakland that gross one million dollars or more.
2)It encourages affected retail establishments to offer incentives to customers to use reusable bags.
3)It allows the use of single-use paper bags, but stipulates that they must contain recycled content.
4)Although it does not encourage or discourage their use, the Ordinance allows the use of biodegradable plastic bags.
If the City adopts the ordinance, it will be following the lead of numerous countries that have already banned or restricted the use of plastic bags including Bangladesh, Denmark, South Africa and Ireland, and have seen dramatic reductions in their use as a result. Locally, San Francisco and Fairfax have banned them and MarinCounty is working with retailers to reduce their use.
“We are proud that Oakland is considering the adoption of this Ordinance,” said Carol Misseldine, Sustainability Coordinator in the City’s Public Works Agency. “We can follow the lead of these other countries and communities and reduce our contribution to this problem.”
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