First of two parts
In four snappy minutes, Culver City businessman Goran Eriksson warned the City Council last evening it was treading an unrewarding path, chasing a plastic bag ban devoid of contents, much less panaceas.
This afternoon, Mr. Eriksson more fully elaborated on why he believes the much-ballyhooed ban is a big, fat colorful balloon. Discouragingly hollow on the inside, it disappointingly offers a rube-level payoff at the bottom of the CrackerJacks box, he maintains.
The slender, see-through contours of the wildly popular prohibition against single-use bags on the grounds they pollute bodies of water, actually is a wispy “Go away, kid, you bother me,” kind of response, he charges.
The former Chair of the Chamber of Commerce was “flabbergasted” that presumably sophisticated environmentalists would take “the cheap way out.”
Mr. Eriksson told the strongly pro-ban crowd in Council Chambers and the decision-makers on the dais that he has been thinking about the plastic-to-waste problem for three years. In a soft, restrained tone of voice, he said research showed that only 2 percent of plastic waste blows to the ocean.
The Swedish native, who travels in Europe, is familiar with pollution fighting strategies on the Continent, and last evening’s ban does not remotely resemble a worthwhile solution.
As he finally walked away from the midnight-length agenda after a nearly five-hour marathon, he was thinking to himself that “we had not accomplished anything with regard to trash or the use of plastic.”
What should the Council and the anti-plastic bag environmental activists have done?
“I am a believer in recycling,” Mr. Eriksson said.
“The Council should have asked staff to look at how to get all stores in the city to begin using recyled plastic bags, and to start a truly comprehensive recycling program. Bags that have been thrown away would be separated out at the city’s transportation facility. This type of plastic is a high-value commodity, and it would have paid for the pick-up program.”
Instead of applying the just-minted ban to a mere 72 Culver City stores – notably excluding fast-food and traditional restaurants – if Mr. Eriksson’s plan had been adopted, he said that “we would have gotten all plastic bags into a system where we would re-use and recycle. But we took a very narrow market. We accomplished nothing.”
(To be continued)
Mr. Eriksson may be contacted at ge@esitechtrans.com
