Today after a lengthy discussion the Los Angeles City Council voted to banish single-use plastic bags. They have inched ever closer to enacting a policy that has been on the agenda for years -three according to this Los Angeles Times editorial.

We have been following the council’s progress on the issue since December of last year.  Since then smaller chunks of southern California and cities further up the west coast have passed ordinances but Los Angeles held off because in the words of Councilwoman Jan Perry they needed to go into this with “eyes wide open.”

After a quick congratulations to the Los Angeles Kings on their wins and a slight dig at the Lakers for their failures the city council took care of business.

They heard  from those for the ban including actress and member of Heal the Bay, Julia Louis-Dreyfus.  Crown Poly employees spoke against the ban and one employee even brought her doctor to cite the recent study that linked norovirus to a reusable bag.

Donna Dempsey of the American Progressive Bag Alliance spoke against the “draconian” ban. She reiterated what she said in a statement yesterday about the potential loss of manufacturing jobs if plastic bags were eliminated. In total more than thirty minutes of public comment was heard. The Council voted 13-1 and now a law will be drafted.

The ban will give retailers depending on their size -six months for large grocers and a year for small- to phase out existing stock of plastic and educate the public about the change.  A ten cent fee for paper will be charged and kept by the store after an initial period that will provide free paper bags. After about two years a paper bag ban will be examined. The thin plastic bags provided by grocery stores for meat and produce are not forbidden so those will still be available for people who need to clean up after their pets.

Proponents of the ban hope that the city of Los Angeles will serve as an example to the rest of the state and encourage the adoption of similar policies.

This week has been a busy one for the council: on Monday they approved a $7.2 billion budget that was not without difficult decisions. The city faces a shortfall of $238 million and are cutting unfilled positions on the city staff while postponing layoffs in other areas until next year if necessary.