(A) General findings.
(1) Globally the production and use of plastic bags has significant environmental impacts each year, including the use of over 12 million barrels of oil, and the deaths of thousands of marine animals through ingestion and entanglement.
(2) Each year, an estimated 500 billion to one trillion plastic bags are used worldwide, which is over one million bags per minute, many of which end up as litter each year.
(3) Most plastic carry-out bags do not biodegrade, but instead photo-degrade, which means that the bags break down into smaller and smaller toxic bits that enter the food web when animals mistake those materials for food.
(4) Because plastic does not biodegrade, every piece of plastic that has found its way from California shores to the Pacific Ocean for the past 50 years still remains in the ocean or has been accumulating in the central Pacific gyre and a "Pacific Garbage Patch" now exists made up of floating plastic and Styrofoam debris. The remaining plastic is deposited on local or distant shores.
(5) Plastic fragments act as "sponges" for dangerous compounds such as Dichloro- diphenyldichloroethylene (DDE), Polychlorinated Biphenyl (PCB), and other toxic materials in ocean water. Plastics have been found to concentrate these toxic chemicals at levels of up to one million times the levels found in sea water.
(6) These highly contaminated fragments have been shown to cause hormone disruption in the fish that ingest them, and in the humans that ingest the fish.
(7) Data collected from the state's annual Coastal Cleanup and the 1999 Pilot Litter Study by the Department of Conservation "indicates that disposable retail bags represent some of the most commonly littered items. Plastic bags are easily carried by wind from uncovered trash and dumpsters, vehicles and solid waste facilities including landfills."
(8) The US Marine Mammal Commission estimates that "257 marine species have been reported entangled in or having ingested marine debris...the plastic constricts the animals' movements and kills marine animals through starvation, exhaustion or infection from deep wounds caused by tightening material. The animals may starve to death as the plastic clogs their intestines preventing them from obtaining vital nutrients. Toxic substances present in plastics are known to cause death or reproductive failure in fish, shellfish and wildlife."
(9) The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports that over 52,000 tons of disposable bags were used in California in 2000 and less than 50 tons were recovered for recycling.
(10) According to Californians Against Waste, over 19 billion disposable plastic bags are generated in California every year, resulting in over 147,000 tons of waste. An estimated 60% of these bags are generated by grocery stores. These bags represent a disproportionately large share of litter and marine debris according to a 1999 Department of Conservation study.
(11) The economics of recycling plastic bags are difficult to sustain, due to the logistics of sorting, contamination of inks, and the overall low quality of the plastic used in plastic bags, resulting in an estimated rate of 1% to 3% of all plastic bags being recycled in any way.
(12) Many plastic bags collected for recycling never get recycled but instead get shipped to third world countries where less stringent environmental laws permit cheap incineration which emits toxic chemicals which are known to cause harm and injury to human health.
(13) While there are many serious negative environmental impacts from the use of paper grocery bags as well, nonetheless, 45% of all paper products are recycled while less than 5% of plastics are recycled.
(14) Almost all curbside pickup and recycling centers allow customers to mix paper bags with newspapers for recycling but very few accept plastic bags for recycling.
(15) The proliferation of plastic carry-out bags at retail stores of all kinds is unmitigated, and recent state legislation mandating that grocery stores provide bins for plastic bag recycling (AB 2449) is not expected to have significant impact on reducing the use of plastic bags (and may not improve recycling rates, given the difficult logistics and poor economics of recycling plastic bags).
(16) The EPA estimates that disposal costs for single-use retail bags in the state exceeds $51,000,000 annually.
(17) The nation of Ireland imposed a $.17 surcharge on carry-out plastic bags which resulted in a 90% decrease in consumption of plastic bags.
(18) State law does not prohibit local ordinances from seeking to remedy this problem by banning plastic bags outright in favor of re-usable cloth bags or paper bags or adding a surcharge for paper-carry out bags.
(19) Alternatives to plastic bags are readily available and include re-usable cloth bags, paper bags, and grocery stores could do more to provide for sale and encourage their customers to use such bags, making plastic unnecessary.
(20) State law does not prohibit the adoption, implementation, or enforcement of any local ordinance, resolution, regulation or rule governing curbside or drop off recycling programs operated by, or pursuant to a contract with a city, county or other public agency, including any action relating to fees for these programs.
(21) The town has a duty to protect the natural environment, the economy, and the health of its citizens.
(22) The town has adopted town-wide goals of 80% landfill diversion by 2012 and zero waste by 2020.
(23) The expansive usage of plastic shopping bags and their typical disposal creates an impediment to Fairfax's landfill diversion goals.
(24) Plastic shopping bags are difficult to recycle and currently contaminate, or will contaminate, material that is processed through Fairfax's recycling and anticipated composting programs.
(25) Plastic shopping bags create significant litter problems in Fairfax's neighborhoods and also its streets, parks, creeks and open space lands.
(26) It is the intent of the State Legislature, in enacting Cal. Public Resources Code Division 30, Part 3, Chapter 5.1 (commencing with § 42250), to encourage the use of reusable bags by consumers and retailers and to reduce the consumption of single-use bags.
(B) Therefore, a need exists to adopt regulations to reduce the use of plastic bags in Fairfax.
(Ord. 722, passed 8-1-2007; Am. Ord. 726, passed 11-7-2007; Am. Ord. approved by voters 11-4-2008)