Whatever happened to L.A.'s plastic-bag ban?

Like so many other things at City Hall, there was a lot of bark but no bite, and the ban that was initially approved by the L.A. City Council never really went into effect as the politicians sat on their hands. Now the City Council's Energy and Environment Committee is bringing it back:

The committee yesterday brought the proposal — from way back in 2011 by councilmembers Paul Koretz and Paul Krekorian — back to life.

If all goes according to that plan, the full City Council should be able to vote June 17 on a single-use plastic-bag ban that could also see a 10-cents-a-bag charge for paper.

The committee also suggested doing away with the six-month phase-out of plastic bags that was originally proposed.

The ban, of course, was opposed by the bag industry (jobs would be lost, reps said) and pro-business councilmembers Bernard Parks and Jan Perry, who argued, quite ridiculously, that germ-attracting reusable bags could present a health problem, ostensibly because they might not be cleaned by their users.

Proponents say bags fill our landfills, oceans and creeks. So good riddance.

[With reporting from City News Service / @dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

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