Posted Feb 2, 2011

The checkout-line choice between paper and plastic bags isn’t going away — at least not yet — in Sonoma County.

But study of the issue is ramping up following a string of plastic-bag bans imposed by California locales, including San Jose, San Francisco, and just last week, Marin County.

Ban advocates say the plastic sacks clutter the landscape and clog landfills.

Only about 5 percent of the 19 billion bags disposed by Californians every year are recycled, advocates say. The rest, about 123,000 tons of plastic — the equivalent in weight to Sonoma County’s red wine grape crop in 2009 — wind up in landfills, according to waste officials.

“It’s no small issue on a national or local scale,” said Sonoma County Supervisor Mike McGuire, who will moderate a public forum on the issue Wednesday at Santa Rosa City Hall.

The event, from 8:45 to 11 a.m. in the City Council chambers, will feature presentations by disposable-bag foes, local city and county representatives, waste management officials and representatives of the plastic bag and grocery industries.

The purpose is to begin a discussion that could feed into the reduction or elimination of disposable bags countywide, McGuire said.

The scope of that policy and whether it includes just grocers or a larger number of retailers will be among the questions on the table Wednesday.

And both plastic and paper bags will be discussed.

County studies and most of the recent bag bans have largely focused on restricting plastic bags.

Recycling of the bags has jumped since 2008, when curbside pickup was offered throughout Sonoma County. About 87 tons of plastic film, a category that includes bags, were recycled in the county in 2010.

Still, that is a fraction of the county’s total waste stream, possibly 2 percent or less, refuse contractors said. And boosting that percentage is difficult because there is no domestic market for recycled plastic bags and because they tend to get clogged up in recycling equipment, contractors said.

Because any ban on plastic could result in a massive increase in the use of paper — itself a cause of greenhouse gas emissions and landfill waste — both types of disposable bags need to be scrutinized, officials said.

“Reusable bags is really what everybody needs to go toward,” said Patrick Carter, program manager with the Sonoma County Waste Management Agency, the joint county and city body that oversees waste policy and planning.

The plastic industry has fought off several statewide attempts to ban plastic bags, including a bill last year in the state Assembly.

Local efforts have proven more successful. At least five California cities and two counties, including Los Angeles County, have approved bag bans.

Representatives from the City of San Francisco and Marin County will be on hand Wednesday to discuss the restrictions imposed in their jurisdictions.

Other speakers will include Santa Rosa Mayor Ernesto Olivares; Supervisor Shirlee Zane, who chairs the local solid waste advisory committee; Susan Houghton, a Safeway representative; Carol Misseldine, a coordinator with Green Cities California; and Robert Bateman, a representative of the plastic bag manufacturer Roplast Industries.

You can reach Staff Writer Brett Wilkison at 521-5295 or brett.wilkison@pressdemocrat.com.

To see more of The Press Democrat, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.pressdemocrat.com.

Copyright © 2011, The Press Democrat, Santa Rosa, Calif.

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