San Francisco Court Says Yes to Extension on Bag Ban

Bag BanA lower court in San Francisco has given its approval to extend the five-year plastic bag ban in all retail stores, which is bound to go into effect from October, as per the schedule. The attorney for the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition, Stephen Joseph, said on September 19th that he will once again take the case and approach the First District Court of Appeals, wherein the coalition also has a pending lawsuit against a plastic bag ban in Marin County.

Joseph told the reporters of Plastics News that the coalition will appeal against the plastic bag ban ruling in San Francisco, and also at the California Superior Court as they were denied the request the first time. The opposition lawyer continued to charge that the judge had somehow failed to apply the law on the ruling.

Same Superior Court denied coalition’s request to overturn ordinance

Just a week ago, the Superior Court of California had denied the opposition’s plea to get the ordinance overturned. The coalition so far includes bag manufacturers such as Command Packaging in Calif., and Crown Poly Inc. in the same place. Coalition also argued thatSan Francisco hasn’t conducted a proper environmental impact report, which is required as per the California Environmental Quality Act.

In addition to all this, the coalition also said that the Code of California Retail Food bans counties and cities from legislating various aspects such as designing and the materials used to make disposable bags, which are provided at food facilities and restaurants. Joseph argued that the carryout bags given at food facilities aren’t subjected to local laws, after the court had denied his request to overturn the ordinance.

San Francisco lawyers argued that ban will encourage usage of wholesale reusable bags

The lawyers of defense in San Francisco have argued that there is no necessity for an EIR before the ban was passed as the law is intended at protecting the environment from the lethal impacts of plastic bags. Environmentalists also supported this statement by saying that the ban on plastic bags will only make the people more eco-minded and will encourage them to carry their own wholesale reusable bags while shopping.

Joseph argued back saying that environmentalists have no such recourse in this situation, under CEQA, as the city will be required to prepare a single document or any other environmental analysis.

Source: http://www.plasticsnews.com/headlines2.html?id=26549&channel=431

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