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BACKGROUND The Committee on Energy and the Environment requested and received at its May 26th meeting a report detailing the scope of the City's authority regarding single use plastic bags' and foam food containers including possible bans. (Attachment 1.) Plastic bags are an environmental concern because 20 billion such bags are used each year in California, only 5% are recycled, many end up as litter, take decades to centuries to degrade, and harm animals (particular marine animals) which ingest them. With regard to plastic bags, this report included information about: 1. State regulation of plastic bag recycling, including State pre emption of any local ability to charge a fee for plastic bags; 2. Bans on plastic bags adopted in other jurisdictions, including successful legal challenges which required an environmental impact report (EIR) 3. Proposed action by the Alameda County Waste Management Authority, which may propose a County -wide ban in 2011; and 4. The Green Cities California report on single -use and reusable plastic bags, which would inform any EIR, but not substitute for one. The May 26th report to the Committee also included a discussion regarding foam food containers, covering: 1. State regulation; and 2. Bans adopted in other cities, including six in Alameda County, and none of which have been challenged in court. At the conclusion of its May 26th meeting, the Committee requested additional information about the environmental effects of foam food containers, and selected a subcommittee to draft proposed motions related to a referral to the City Council regarding such bans. At the Committee's June 23rd meeting, supplemental information was provided (Attachment 2), advising that: 1. Foam food containers represent about 5% of litter in the City; 2. Foam food containers take decades to centuries to degrade; 3. Only 0.2% are recycled; and A single -use plastic bag is the type of bag provided at the check -out stand to a customer to hold final purchases. As discussed in this report, it does not include plastic bags used to deliver newspapers, gather items in the produce section of a grocery store, or the rolls and boxes of plastic bags bought by consumers for their own use. 2 The term foam food container is intended to mean expanded polystyrene foam used for beverage cups, clam -shell boxes, and plates. Dow Chemical, which holds the trademark for Styrofoamm, advises that StyrofoamTM is used for construction materials, not foam food containers. 3 The 2007 ban adopted by the City of Oakland was successfully challenged for failure of Oakland to prepare an EIR, as plastic manufacturers argued that a ban on plastic bags results in increases use of paper bags which cause more greenhouse gas emissions and water use in manufacturing and transportation. The City of Manhattan Beach's ban was similarly challenged for lack of an EIR; and the California Supreme Court has agreed to hear this matter, which should provide a definitive ruling about whether an EIR is needed to ban such plastic bags. Page 2 of 5