According to the California Supreme Court Manhattan Beach is permitted to ban retailers from using plastic bags without the prerequisite of going through a lengthy environmental study on the benefits and increasing practice of using paper bags.
On Thursday, a unanimous court ruling maintained that “substantial evidence and common sense” show that the ban would not indeed harm the environment. The ruling will in effect overturn an appellate court decision.
The Save the Bag Coalition, an industry group filed a lawsuit in order to overturn the ban enacted back in July of 2008. The coalition made the argument that paper bags have a much greater negative effect on the environment than plastic bags and demanded an immediate in-depth environmental study before the ban actually would go into effect; a necessary precaution.
Justice Carol Corrigan rejected that argument and insisted that there would be no environmental harm caused by the ban.
According to one article written on the topic:
“Paper bags have a greater environmental impact than plastic bags, and therefore, you would not create a policy that banned plastic and forced everyone to use paper only,” said Dick Lilly, the manager of the waste prevention program for Seattle Public Utilities. After much analysis, that city spurned the San Francisco model in favor of a fee on all bags, meant to spur shoppers to bring their own — a goal San Francisco officials embrace, but do virtually nothing to promote. Key elements of the S.F. model, in Lilly’s estimation, “could be a catastrophic mistake.”