Wednesday, the Los Angeles City Council took steps forward in crafting an aggressive ban on single-use plastic and paper bags. The council's Energy and Environment Committee unanimously passed a recommendation for a three-phase ban that would, if enacted, become "one of the most-far reaching measures in the nation," describes Heal the Bay. more ›

Two Orange County cities are considering separate ordinances to ban single-use plastic bags. If approved, Dana Point and Laguna Beach would be the first two cities in the OC to put in place such a ban, similar to a ban already implemented in Los Angeles County and cities within LA County. more ›

If you live, work, or, most importantly, shop in unincorporated Los Angeles County, reusable shopping bags should be on your holiday wish list, because the ban on single-use plastic bags expands to include smaller stores effective January 1, 2012. more ›

Beverly Hills is still working away at getting a plastic bag ban in place, and Patch checked in with officials there to see how long it's going to be before a ban is in the bag. more ›

The Glendale City Council is looking at implementing a plastic bag ban that mirrors the one already in place for unincorporated Los Angeles County. The push to force businesses and shoppers to utilize bags that are more eco-friendly, in particular reusable bags, has been strong in the Los Angeles area for the past few years. more ›

Shoppers, your 6-month grace period is over: Tomorrow begins a life of BYOBag for shoppers in Santa Monica, as the city's Single-Use Carryout Bag Ban goes into full enforcement September 1. Under the ban, all 1,900 Santa Monica retailers are prohibited from giving customers single-use plastic carryout bags. more ›

Although cities and counties in California are creating legislation to ban the distribution of single-use plastic shopping bags by stores and restaurants, one group has seen to it California's students will read a section in their textbooks about the positives about the bags. more ›

Huntington Beach City Council members - including Connie Boardman, Devin Dwyer and Joe Shaw - voted 4 to 3 on Monday for the city to enact an ordinance banning single-use plastic bags, reports Huntington Beach Independent. more ›

Taking a cue from a recently-implemented ban in unincorporated Los Angeles County, and other local cities like Long Beach and Santa Monica, Burbank appears poised to be the next to ban plastic bags at retail stores. more ›

Officials in Long Beach are busy preparing businesses and consumers that the city's ban on disposable, single-use plastic shopping bags goes into effect on August 1st. Their campaign, "Take a Tote," has found the city hosting reusable bag giveaways at various locations in the LBC to help customers get all geared up for the switch. more ›

It's time to bid adieu to L.A. County's "urban tumbleweed." Friday, July 1 marks the day a ban on single-use plastic bags goes into effect in unincorporated Los Angeles County. The ban was approved back in November 2010. more ›

Shoppers in Santa Monica, you'd best be bringing your own bags to your neighborhood stores from this day forward, as today is the day the city's ban on plastic bags goes into effect. If you forgot to pack those re-usable canvas bags in your Prius before hitting the Whole Foods, though, relax: City Hall is giving retailers a six-month grace period before enforcing the ban, reports the Santa Monica Daily Press. more ›

Who knew the waters that lap the shores of Long Beach were such a hot bed of headline-generating eco-focused news? 2010 was a banner year for environmental issues at the national and state level, and the Long Beach Gazettes.com takes a look back at the year at their beach. more ›

Did you know that an average Californian uses 500 to 600 plastic bags each year? For those still toting groceries and other sundries in plastic from the store to the car to the house, Thursday offers an opportunity to convert to a plastic bag-free life. A Day Without a Bag is an annual event aimed at promoting awareness of the harm single-use plastic bags cause the environment, and to encourage consumers to trade their plastic for eco-friendly reusable bags. more ›

With a ban on plastic bags approved for unincorporated areas in Los Angeles County, other local cities are moving towards adopting similar bans, including Long Beach, where the City Council will consider a motion on the matter tomorrow, according to the Press-Telegram. more ›

The bill to ban plastic bags in the state of California was defeated, but today Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke at a press conference to ask lawmakers to consider reviving the bill, reports the Sacramento Bee. more ›

Calling plastic bags "urban tumbleweed," L.A. County Sup. Zev Yaroslavsky was among the voters on the Board who helped put a sweeping ban on the items today, according to LA Now. Joining Yaroslavsky were Sups. Gloria Molina and Mark Ridley-Thomas, with Sup. Michael D. Antonovich opposing, and Sup. Don Knabe absent. more ›

Los Angeles County could become the largest municipality in the county to pass a ban on single use plastic bags...if the Board of Supervisors vote accordingly today. more ›

While everyday should be a day without a plastic bag, today is that day where we emphasize it. Heal the Bay sponsors the annual event in which free reusable bags are given away to help reduce the more than 6 billion plastic bags used by Los Angeles County residents each year. Eek! That's a horrible fact. Changing the lifestyle is not so hard. In our experience, the most difficult hurdle to overcome was remembering to take the bag with us every time we headed to the store. more ›

Los Angeles County wants residents to stop using plastic grocery bags, "or at least recycle them," which is what's behind their just-launched "Brag About Your Bag" program, according to CBS2. more ›

So Santa Monica was getting ready to ban plastic bags earlier this week when the plastic bag industry with their ridiculous website, savetheplasticbag.com (what is with that Obama picture they're using?), threatened to sue them, writes GreenLAGirl. The problem was that Santa Monica did not do an environmental impact report so the City Council deferred action until that was done. City staff said that shouldn't push back the date of banning plastic bags since they had other studies to do too and now they will do them concurrently. Malibu, Manhattan Beach, Pasadena and Los Angeles have all recently passed or are looking into plastic bag bans over the past year. more ›

Since it's a Day Without a Bag today, here's a useful, creative and value added way to make your holiday gifts more environmentally hip. The bags in this video are from Baggu Bags. more ›

An estimated six billion plastic bags are used every year in LA County with the average Californian using 552 of them per year. That's a lot potential harm to the ecosystem, especially when not recycled. The plastic bag industry has made weak arguments to keep the environmentally unfriendly object around, even slapping lawsuits on cities who propose a ban (desperation?). more ›

Last month, the city of Manhattan Beach banned the plastic bag as plastic advocates promised to sue. And sue they did yesterday. "The Save the Plastic Bag Coalition has asked a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge to toss out the prohibition on grounds that the city violated the California Environmental Quality Act by not fully analyzing the environmental effects of such a ban, according to papers filed recently," says the Daily Breeze. When plastic bag advocates appeared on KCRW's Which Way LA?, they presented some of the weakest arguments ever in a debate. more ›

On Monday night, Malibu took a big step for the environment: they forbid the distribution of both plastic and compostable carryout bags. It's the most aggressive plastic bag action to date for any Southland city, according to Heal The Bay. more ›

One of the first major stores in the US to initiate a surcharge per plastic bag, IKEA, has announced that they will stop providing customers with disposable bags entirely in October of this year. more ›

Did you know that residents of Los Angeles County use 6 billion plastic bags a year, and only 5% of bags in the US are recycled? In the state of California the average person uses 552 bags, according to the environmental organization Heal the Bay. These bags are then left to choke up our waterways, landfills, streets, and urban landscapes, causing harm to animal life and our ecosystem. This is why Heal the Bay, along... more ›

This week ended with the launch of the seventh and final Harry Potter installation. But while the world was consumed with Pottermania, it's important to remember that there were more serious things going on in the world, too - two of them in -Ist cities. more ›

LAist Rants are strictly the opinions of the author in question. Uncanny as it is, they are written in first person! We keep them on Sundays because even the hive mind needs a rest. more ›