Plastic bag ban looms for Mammoth
Town ordinance becomes effective March 1.
With all the snow flying this winter, it’s sort of escaped people’s minds, but starting March 1, the Town of Mammoth Lakes’ plastic bag ban goes into effect. Meaning, bring your own bag when you head out shopping or pay a minimum of a dime to buy a recycled bag from a retailer.
No one’s going to jail for harboring plastic bags and the doors won’t close on stores that use them, but the ordinance states it can be enforced “by any legal means available to the Town.” Establishments that already have bags won’t have to throw them away where they would end up as trash at the Benton Landfill. The abundance of polyethylene at the Benton dump is what prompted Mono County to pursue a ban of its own, but it is waiting to see what the state does.
The state passed Senate Bill 270 in 2014, banning bags in the state, but Big Plastic, like American Progressive Bag Alliance, spent enough money to get a referendum of the bill on the November ballot. Mammoth Lakes adopted its ordinance in September 2015 but was preempted by the SB 270. However, when the referendum showed up, the Town decided to move forward with its own ban.
