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# Malibu bans plastic bags
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/malibu-bans-plastic-bags/
- Published: 2008-05-15T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T19:36:43.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Government & Politics, Malibu, #archive-import

*By DAILY PRESS STAFF*

Daily Press Staff

MALIBU — The four supermarkets in Malibu have six months to comply with a new law banning plastic bags.

Restaurants and other retailers have up to a year.

The City Council this week unanimously approved an ordinance banning plastic bags and establishing a $1,000 fine.

Environmentalists are pleased, saying plastic bags clog storm drains and drift out to sea where they can kill marine life. Heal the Bay’s Sarah Abramson says the average American uses 600 plastic bags a year.

At Monday’s council meeting, Mayor Pamela Conley Ulich asked the city’s staff to study imposing a fee on paper bags to encourage people to bring reusable bags.

The Los Angeles Board of Supervisors in January adopted a voluntary program encouraging grocers in the unincorporated areas of the county to curb the use of ecologically unfriendly bags, a move that was criticized as not going far enough.

Californians go through an estimated 19 billion plastic bags every year, approximately 6 billion of which come from Los Angeles County alone, according to statistics by the California Integrated Waste Management Board. City Hall in 2005 conducted a survey of 25 local grocers and food markets and found they distribute a total of 23 million plastic bags each year.

Malibu joins cities such as Santa Monica in the banning of plastic bags.

The plastic bag ban in Santa Monica has received widespread support from the community, who urged city officials to follow the leads of their colleagues in cities like San Francisco, which banned non-biodegradable plastic bags last year.

Environmental leaders often point to the detrimental effects that plastic bags have on the marine bio life, polluting the waters and killing thousands of sea animals that mistake it for food every year. Many also note that plastic bags are a wasteful use of petroleum, a finite resource that would be better served in other forms, like medical equipment.

In addition to banning single-use plastic bags, which are the flimsy bags often distributed by grocers and liquor stores, the recently approved ordinance could also require retailers to charge a paper bag fee, a step toward slowly changing consumer behavior and encouraging a switch to reusable bags, Santa Monica city officials said.

Associated Press contributed to this report.

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*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 15, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/051508.pdf?ref=smdp.com)