Photo by ninjapoodles via Flickr 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. "Grocery stores, food vendors, restaurants, pharmacies and city facilities have six months to comply with the ordinance. Smaller sized retailers have one year until the measure is operative," the......

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. The decision to ban the bag in the States comes on the heels of the same move the Swedish-based furniture and home design store implemented in their UK and Australia stores last year. Since instituting the 5 cent per bag charge......

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......

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. Sampaist was shocked when a passenger jet crashed into the center of Sao Paulo, killing at least 200 people. The airplane, an Airbus A320, skidded off the runway at the......

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. I always had them in my car trunk with good intentions. Though, for years, I would forget to use them and give myself the obligatory mental swift kick in the arse, each and every time at the grocery store check......