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Council adopts ordinance aligning local bag rules with California law; one no vote
Summary
Certino amended its municipal code to align with state law banning thicker single-use plastic checkout bags and requiring recycled-content paper bags (minimum 10 cents), adopting the ordinance despite one dissenting vote concerned about retail costs and public-health trade-offs.
The Certino City Council voted April 21 to amend the city's single-use carryout bag ordinance to conform to recent state requirements, eliminating the thicker plastic bags that had been treated as reusable under earlier law.
Environmental Program Manager Ursula Cairo told the council the state (Senate Bill 1053) now requires that checkout single-use bags, if provided, must be paper made with recycled content and sold for no less than 10 cents each; the city also updated local code to reflect Senate Bill 1046 standards for pre-checkout produce bags. Staff summarized life-cycle analyses for reusable bags and reiterated that the lowest environmental impact comes from reusing the bag already in a shopper's home.
One resident urged council to adopt the minimum needed to comply with state law and to avoid additional local enforcement that could shift business to neighboring cities. Council Member Wong voted no, citing concerns about added retail costs and unintended public-health trade-offs from switching to paper products in some food-service contexts; the ordinance passed with the remaining councilmembers voting yes.
Staff said violations can be reported through the city's 311 system and noted that the city previously adopted a related single-use foodware restriction in 2022. The amendments also clarify that where local rules were broader than the state's covered categories, the city retained the broader scope for retail and restaurant coverage.
