City Council Votes to Improve Malibu’s Plastic Bag Ban

MALIBU, CA – At the City Council meeting on Monday, March 13, 2017, the City Council voted to improve Malibu’s existing ban on the single-use plastic shopping bags that are extremely harmful to marine life and ecosystems.

"We’ve come a long way in reducing single-use plastic bag trash and the environmental damage they cause,” said Mayor Lou La Monte. “But as an environmental leader, we can do more, so we’ve fine-tuned our ordinance to encourage people to only use re-usable shopping bags.”

The City Council amended the ordinance adopted in May 2008 prohibiting the use of single-use plastic shopping bags in the City. Malibu’s ordinance now requires that all retail businesses in Malibu charge at least 10 cents for every single-use plastic or paper bag that a customer requests in order to discourage customers from using single-use plastic bags and as a reminder to use re-usable shopping bags. The businesses keep the money collected.

In 2008, Malibu was one of the first cities in the state and nationwide to adopt a plastic bag ban, establishing the City as an environmental leader. Numerous studies have documented the excessive amounts of single-use plastic bags littering the environment, blocking storm drains, and fouling beaches. They are a significant source of marine debris and are hazardous to wildlife.

The impetus to update Malibu’s law was the adoption of the State plastic bag ban, SB 270, in July 2015. It requires businesses to charge customers 10 cents per single-use plastic or paper bag. It also only applies to businesses with sales floors larger than 10,000 square feet or with more than $2,000,000 in annual gross receipts, so it would not apply to most businesses in Malibu. However, Malibu’s amended ordinance does apply to all retail establishments in the City.

For more information on the plastic bag ban, visit http://www.malibucity.org/plasticbagban.

-- News release from the city of Malibu. Photo via Pixabay