S. Tahoe delays expanding plastic bag ban
By Kathryn Reed
The South Lake Tahoe City Council remains confused regarding its vision about the use of plastic bags in town.
On Tuesday the council on a 3-2 vote decided to delay implementation of the plastic bag ban for retailers. It was supposed to go into effect Oct. 15. It has been delayed for a year.
Restaurants were never included in that group. But it did include dry cleaners, in addition to clothing outlets, hardware stores and other businesses deemed retail.
Of the more than 3,000 business licenses in the city, 800 are considered retail.
Councilmembers Brooke Laine and Angela Swanson wanted to go forward with the ban this year – as has been their stance from the get-go. Councilmembers Tom Davis and JoAnn Conner have been against the ban all along. Mayor Hal Cole has consistently been the swing vote. On June 17 he cast the deciding vote to delay the ban.
While Cole said his big issue is the number of plastic bags ending up in landfills, he is also concerned with mandating what he called “mom and pop businesses” to eliminate plastic as an option to bag goods.
Paper bags cost retailers more to buy than plastic. But plastic is said to be worse environmentally, which is an overriding reason why cities are banning those bags.
Earlier this year grocery stores in South Lake Tahoe had to stop handing out the single-use bags.
Six people spoke at the meeting – most in support of going forward with expanding the bag ban to other businesses. Of the five letters the city received, three favored the ban.
Not a single business owner — small or large – was at the meeting asking the council to rescind or delay the expanded bag ban, or change what is in place now.
In July, the council will officially revise the current ordinance to reflect the delayed implementation for retail establishments. There is always the possibility there could be another delay or some other change to the use of plastic bags in South Lake Tahoe – especially since there will be a new council in a matter of months.
In other action:
• A consultant told the council at this time it is safe to stick with not having district elections. This is not the route Lake Tahoe Community College and Lake Tahoe Unified School District took. In November the education entities will switch to district elections. But their boundaries are different than the city’s.
Really, this town has way too many spineless people that make decisions. Im sure all the people who need free plastic bags to pick up their dog c r a p are all just happy as clams over this decision by our city “leaders”. Quite frankly im just disgusted and really surprised at the lack of spine by our city council. Pathetic and ignorant…
I was at the meeting, there were questions about places like Dry Cleaning that would be banned for using plastic to protect clothes and things like Hardware stores that use small plastic bags to place items like small numbers of nuts and bolts, ect. Also places like Kmart that can not buy paper bags that are large enough to put some of their items that are purchased in. I believe these are some valid concerns, maybe they have some exceptions. Personally if I am having something dry cleaned and wont be using it for awhile I would prefer it be protected from getting dirty.
I agree witg go figure…about the spineless part and the disgusted part. But I’m not surprised.
JoAnn Conner couldn’t conceal her giddiness when Hal Cole handed her and Davis their win. Congratulations to those three for once again demonstrating that SLT is backward thinking and not forward thinking. Thank goodness Ms. Conner will continue to have free bags in which to place dog and cat feces and/or soiled disposable diapers prior to directing those items into the landfill.
“bags cost retailers more to buy than plastic. But plastic is said to be worse environmentally”
Is said? Can we please see one studie where this is fact? This is all just say and you’re all going off your great environmental assumptions… Be sure to support the logging of Tahoe and forget your reusable bag! I also make sure all my reusable bags were made in China…
Plastic grocery bags require 70% less energy to manufacture than paper bags, and produce half the amount of greenhouse gas emissions in the process.
For every seven trucks needed to deliver paper bags, only one truck is needed for the same number of plastic bags, helping to save energy and reduce emissions.
It takes 91% less energy to recycle a pound of plastic than it does to recycle a pound of paper.
By using plastics in their packaging, product manufacturers save enough energy every year to power a city of 1 million homes for 3-1/2 years.
The reusable bags most places now have are made from a more harmful form a plastic that is harder to recycle. The fact is too many people forget their bags and need to use paper. This is now nothing but a huge waist of energy.
i understand that paperbags and plastic take the same amount of time to decompose in landfills because of no air to help the paper decompsoe
Good job city the ban was and is a joke, so sick of environmental special interest groups telling what I need to do!
“Environmental special interest groups” ? The politics here is itself a “special interest group”, or haven’t you noticed ?. . .that’s O.K., no one else does either. . .
It would seem that the only reason they put a ‘review’ in was so what happened yesterday could be done. . . as the same “900 & something” people didn’t like it in the first place.
That we have mixed messages like “what a joke” is to be our legacy, absent any moral fiber or stamina. . .
It is amazing that the City of South Lake Tahoe cannot make it into the modern age. Not extending the plastic bag ban, makes no sense, when we are supposed to be on the cutting edge. No parking meters. Who goes to Lakeside Beach but visitors. We need to push forward to elect individuals to City Council who are forward thinking.
There are bigger fish to fry than plastic bags in stores.
Let’s give a good hearty schtupping to the golden goose…Thanks Tom, Thanks Hal, Thanks JoAnn. Way to lead us into the future…from the back of the pack.
“We need to push forward to elect individuals to City Council who are forward thinking.”
I agree with the above suggestion but what’s first needed is a majority of the voting public who are forward thinking and not backward thinking. Therein lays the problem with SLT. At the present it appears that the backward thinkers are the majority voters within the City limits of the City of SLT and they wield the control.