Yes, the City of Sacramento has banned plastic bags as of January 1st, 2016!

The County of Sacramento, however, has yet to make the same move.

ECOS fully supports the single-use plastic bag ban in Sacramento County.

Here’s your chance to weigh in on the burden of plastic bags. Contact the Board of Supervisors in the form of a phone call, e-mail, letter, or attending their workshop on Tuesday March 8, 2016 at 2:00 pm (in the Board of Supervisors chambers). Show where YOU stand on plastic bags! Any help is greatly appreciated.

As you may know, the organization Californians Against Waste is working diligently on upholding the statewide plastic bag ban. That effort involves assisting local jurisdictions in implementing their own bans. Sacramento County is en route to adopting a single-use plastic bag ban that will eliminate plastic bag litter in the rivers, parks, and communities throughout the area. It will also save the county countless tax dollars spent to clean-up the 4 million plastic bags that are distributed weekly in unincorporated Sacramento County. And of course, the benefit to wildlife will be priceless.

District 1, Phil Serna, (916) 874-5485, SupervisorSerna[at]saccounty[dot]net
District 2, Patrick Kennedy, (916) 874-5481, SupervisorKennedy[at]saccounty[dot]net
District 3, Susan Peters, (916) 874-5471, susanpeters[at]saccounty[dot]net
District 4, Roberta MacGlashan, (916) 874-5491, macglashanr[at]saccounty[dot]net
District 5, Don Nottoli, (916) 874-5465, nottolid[at]saccounty[dot]net

Some useful information:

• Single-use plastic bags are expensive to clean up, environmentally damaging, and an easily preventable source of litter.
• California’s Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery found that less than 5% of these single-use plastic bags are recycled in California.
• Even when properly disposed of, bags tend to blow out of trash cans, solid waste vehicles and off the face of the County’s Keifer Landfill landing in the county’s parks and waterways.
• Much of the county’s plastic eventually washed out through the Delta into San Francisco Bay and then to coastal waters.
• 147 cities and counties, including the City of Sacramento, have adopted local restrictions on single-use plastic bags which have been to be both popular and effective.
• In unincorporated Sacramento County, almost 4 million bags are distributed every week, which means that each day without a ban contributes about 540,000 bags to the problem.
• The local Material Recovery Facility shuts down on average 6 times per day to remove plastic bags from their sorting equipment.
• The Sacramento County Environmental Commission recommends this ordinance.

Flex your citizen power. Encourage the Board of Supervisors to pass a plastic bag ban in Sacramento County!

Contact:
Genevieve Abedon
Californians Against Waste
genevieveabedon[at]cawrecycles[dot]org