By Khalida Sarwari
At a scoping meeting last week where Campbell residents were asked to weigh in on an environmental impact report for a proposed single-use plastic bag ban ordinance, the discussion ranged from which retailers would be affected to whether the report would consider the impact of the ban beyond the city of Campbell.
Dean Peterson, San Mateo County’s environmental health director, and Matt Maddox, an environmental planner at Rincon Consultants Inc., the firm hired to conduct the EIR, held a meeting on May 2 to present an analysis of environmental issues related to a plastic bag ban ordinance. The meeting was attended by nearly two dozen people, including Mayor Mike Kotowski as well as members of the business community.
“This is the best turnout we’ve had for the scoping meetings,” Peterson said.
Maddox reviewed some of the issues that will be considered in the EIR, such as air quality, effects on wildlife, wastewater treatment systems and solid waste.
Pam Ledesma, a Campbell resident and supporter of the ban, encouraged Maddox and Peterson to use the EIR as a tool to convince opponents of the ordinance that plastic bags are a serious problem.
“One of the reasons people won’t support this ordinance is because they don’t believe there is a problem,” she said. “You don’t want to drive emotions, but the way you present information about a problem determines the way people feel about a problem,” she said.
Campbell is one of 24 cities in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties that has agreed to be a part of San Mateo County’s effort to prepare a draft EIR for the elimination of single-use bags. As the lead agency, San Mateo County is paying for the EIR as part of a united approach in implementing a ban.
Agreeing to participate in the preparation of the EIR does not obligate the 24 municipalities to implement the ban. The mayors of Los Gatos, Saratoga and Campbell all have said they are not inclined to follow the city of San Jose by enacting a ban and are opting instead to wait for the state to make a decision.
The proposed ordinance would regulate the use of paper and plastic single-use carryout bags at all retail establishments within the participating municipalities, including those selling food, clothing and personal items. The ban would not apply to restaurants.
Under the ordinance, retailers would be required to distribute only recycled paper bags and reusable bags to shoppers for a fee of 10 cents per bag, which would be increased to 25 cents in two years.
Kotowski appeared to have several reservations about the ordinance at the May 2 meeting.
“There’s an educational process here, but I don’t know that a financial penalty is the answer,” he said.
“We’d like to look at it as an encouragement,” said Peterson in response. “We’re changing behavior, and we all know that’s a very difficult thing to do.”
The public will have a chance to comment on the draft EIR from June to July. In September, the county will hold hearings on the ordinance and the final EIR.
For more information about the ordinance, visit www.smchealth.org/bagban.
EIR for a proposed single-use plastic ban ordinance the topic of meeting in Campbell
