Small Victory for Malibu

Yes, finally someone with brains in the City Council is working for us. Alas, though, it's not our lovely Santa Monica (that touts being an environmentally friendly city - yeah, right!), but rather it's my beloved Malibu that has taken vast strides this week. They've announced a new ordinance that will take into affect in 6 months banning all plastic bags from stores. Hallelujah! Finally some real action to finally ban these one-use bags that end up in landfills, beaches, and choking our sea life. Santa Monica had tried to draft a similar ordinance in February, but with no luck actually implementing the ban. The bureaucrats are too afraid to step on the toes of big box business - aka the Ralphs, the Targets, etc. I'm so proud of Malibu to take this stand finally and hopefully set an example for the rest of Los Angeles and beyond. After participating in Heal the Bay's annual beach clean up, it's amazing to see the mass quantity of plastic bags, cigarette butts, and styrofoam pieces littering our beaches. Since then, I've made a conscious decision to ban plastic bags from my household (although, I'm still working on my husband!) I now have a large collection of green Wholefood's reusable bags that I keep in my car for every shopping errand. And many times, believe me, I run into Riteaid for toothpaste and forget my reusable bag. But I refuse to take another one-use bag, and instead either run back to my car or hand carry the toothpaste back to the car. How hard is that? So until our political morons actually pass a ban of plastic bags in your city, let's all try to take a stand and stop using them. Let your guilt get the better of you and don't take another plastic bag. It's all to benefit our kids and preserve our oceans.