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# Recycling the answer to bagging it
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/governor-on-the-right-track-just-going-in-wrong-direction/
- Published: 2006-01-17T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T17:03:32.000Z
- Author: David Pisarra
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*By Larry Johnson Chairman, Progressive Bag Alliance*

David Pisarra’s column (SMDP, Jan. 3, page 4) and the idea of a tax on plastic bags concerns me, and it should concern Santa Monica residents as well.

There are better, more constructive ways to address the issues that he raises. Pisarra’s dollar-per-bag tax suggestion would cost a family using only 12 bags a week $600 per year.

A tax would also increase grocery prices and encourage residents to leave Santa Monica to shop for groceries where there isn’t a tax — a trend that could result in potential job losses at markets experiencing a decrease in business. Most important, a bag tax wouldn’t necessarily reduce litter, it would just penalize everybody for the reckless action of a few.

Pisarra suggests that the Irish bag tax reduced the use of grocery bags by 95 percent. It did, and increased the sale of plastic trash bags by 99 percent. Grocery bags are reused by consumers as kitchen and bath trash bags, and their removal from stores automatically required a replacement.

Plastic bags — including grocery, produce and dry cleaning — are easily recycled and the opportunities for the public to participate are growing daily. One bag manufacturer, Hilex Poly, has established the bag-to-bag recycling program where used grocery bags collected in stores and in curbside recycling programs are turned back into new grocery bags that stores purchase for customer use.

Cities in Orange County and the city of Los Angeles have added plastic bags to the items that can be recycled in their curbside collection programs. These bags are being turned back into new bags, plastic lumber, or other durable products such as trash cans, pallets or parking bumpers. The public wholeheartedly thanked the politicians and city staff for their environmentally forward thinking in establishing these programs. The city of Santa Monica should catch up with other environmentally sensitive cities and join in this effort. If the city puts plastic bags in their recycling program, they can help promote the purchase of grocery bags made from the same bags that the public is recycling. This makes a lot more sense than taxing the public for the use of a plastic bag that could be replaced by alternatives that have more environmental consequences than anyone can anticipate.

Earlier this year, four major U.S. grocery bag manufacturers joined together to form the Progressive Bag Alliance (PBA), whose goals are to put programs in place that actually get recycling of plastic bags accomplished and reduce litter on the nation’s streets. The manufacturers recognize that our cities, beaches and roadways need cleaning up and that it is vital for plastic bags to be recaptured and reused. In California, the PBA is recruiting cities to add plastic bags to their curbside collection programs, working with grocers to increase at-store recycling and promoting programs to educate the public that they should be using bags efficiently and thereby reducing the total number of bags consumed.

In the city of Los Angeles, a coalition of grocers, the PBA and city officials have joined together to launch an initiative to get bags out of the environment through efficient bag use (you don’t need to double bag, and more than two items can go into a bag), focus to get customers to bring the bags back to the store and a huge campaign to stop the public from littering all items that seem to get thrown on the streets by irresponsible people and end up in the rivers and ocean.

Bottom line, plastic bags can be recycled. So educating the public about recycling opportunities and encouraging proper use and reuse is a more effective and desirable alternative to a tax. The market for recycled plastic is booming. Recyclers can earn 15 to 20 cents per pound of plastic bags collected. So not only can the city of Santa Monica promote a positive environmental initiative by recycling plastic bags, they can make money too.

We would gladly volunteer to step up and work with the city to initiate a plastic bag recycling program. Are city leaders and the public ready to move ahead on a positive environmental action?

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 17, 2006.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/011706.pdf?ref=smdp.com)