a glance around during the height of holiday spells reveals more woven and cloth totes, and far less paper and plastic bags, than last year. it&rsquos likely outcome of the city&rsquos ban that was imposed six months ago on singleuse plastic shopping bags. from jan. 1, the related charges on paper bags are jumped from 10 to 25 cents. this has also leaded to reducing the use of paper and plastic bags. the goal is to trim down on disposable bags, and motivate shoppers to bring their own reusable bags. however, plastic bags are still being trashed by the canful behind merchant counters. during a visit to the express store of the mall, an employee was seen unpacking sweaters out of a shipping box and showed how each sweater comes covered in its own clear plastic bag. the employee explained that store associates pull off the bags and drop them in the trash before placing the clothes out for sale. in the retail industry, express is perhaps not an exception. at the mall, this castoff plastic could count for magnitudes extra waste than what&rsquos been decreased with monterey&rsquos bag ban. ted terrasas is the city&rsquos sustainability coordinator. according to ted, the ban is mostly intended to trim down on the kinds of bags that end up as trash. he mentioned that recovering other kinds of plastics is a nice idea, such as packaging material. however, ted also says one benefit is that this waste generally ends up in one dedicated place, such as a landfill or recycler. the monterey&rsquos bag ban took effect on july 1, and ab 341 followed the same trend. the state law has made recycling compulsory at multifamily residences as well as commercial sites that are producing minimum 4 cubic yards of waste in duration of a week. however, it doesn&rsquot clarify which materials should be recycled. jeff danzinger is a spokesman of calrecycle. jeff says there are no state laws in regards to plastic film waste, or even statistics tracking the same. he further adds that it shouldn&rsquot be filling the landfill. jill vivanco, who is del monte center general manager, mentions the mall recycles cardboard, white paper, and restaurants&rsquo cans and bottles. however, there are no recycling bins available to customers, and plastic packaging is not being recycled at all. she also mentioned that most of that material is considered trash anyway. however, monterey city disposal does gather plastic film in its curbside recycling program. along with this, its commercial services also include commingled recycling containers. tom parola is the hauling company&rsquos operations manager. tom says that whatever&rsquos dropped into the mall&rsquos garbage bins ends up in the landfill. it includes clear plastic bags, as well. he mentioned that the company doesn&rsquot separate it if it goes in the trash. del monte center has just one commingled recycling container, which is located behind whole foods. whole foods also segregate its food scraps for composting. tom said that many stores maintain their own private trashhauling systems. jeff lindenthal, who is the spokesman for the monterey regional waste management district, is amazed clean plastic bags from mall shops would be trashed. he mentions some local businesses, such as the rei store located in marina, do recycling for their warehouse packaging. source of information httpwww.montereycountyweekly.comnews2013jan03plasticloopholes
