Urge the Los Angeles City Council to finalize the single-use bag ordinance that will keep plastic bags from trashing our communities and beaches! 

What can you do? The City Council needs to hear from you! (Please consider doing all three!)

• Call or email your City Councilmember
• Sign a letter to Council President Herb Wesson. 
• Join us at the hearing (likely in May). 

Get the Facts

• Frequently Asked Questions
  City of Los Angeles' Proposed Single-Use Bag Ordinance

In Los Angeles we use billions of plastic bags a year. Despite efforts to expand recycling programs, the California recycling rate for plastic bags is 5%. Most bags – even if reused once or twice – end up in the landfill or as litter.

California spends $25 million a year to landfill discarded plastic bags. This money could go to other public services. Plastic bags, designed only to be used for minutes, may never truly biodegrade. As litter, plastic bags enter our ocean, rivers and creeks, threatening marine life. 

On May 23, 2012, the Los Angeles City Council voted to draft an ordinance that would ban single-use plastic bags and place a charge on paper bags at grocery stores and select other retailers. The City has been working to prepare the appropriate environmental reports under the California Environmental Quality Act and draft the language of the ordinance. 

The ordinance still needs final approval from the City Council, so we need your support in the coming months.

Want more information? Sign up here to stay informed. 

UPDATE - March 2013: The City of Los Angeles continues to move forward with the development of its single-use bag ordinance. Read the Bureau of Sanitation's draft Environmental Impact Report (PDF), and stay tuned for more information about the City Council's final vote later this spring!

UPDATE - FEBRUARY 2013: On February 21, 2013, the California Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District upheld an earlier Superior Court ruling that Los Angeles County's 10 cent charge for paper bags did not constitute a tax under Proposition 26, in Schmeer et al v. County of Los Angeles. Heal the Bay supported the County's argument by submitting a"friend of the court" brief (PDF) in the case. Read more about this win from Surfrider.

To learn more about Southern California areas that have banned or will ban single-use plastic bags, visit the Southern California Public Radio map with more information about each ordinance.