A handful of municipalities in San Mateo County either have plastic bag bans, are voting on plastic bag bans, or are investigating plastic bag bans. But it’s an idea that some of the cities in the county haven’t broached, and there remains some hesitancy to some of the finer implications.

But the President of the Board of Supervisors has announced that she would like to see a working group of cities create a new ordinance that would bring consistency to the county’s position on the plastic bags.

If the consistency is the goal, then the board may find itself with a broad range of interested stakeholders. The California Retailers Association and the California Grocer’s Association are both hoping to make sure the plan applies to equally to all aspects of stores, not simply one type of food store or another type of grocer.

From the Mercury News:

Herding mid-Peninsula cities into adopting a uniform San Mateo County-wide plastic ban may be easier said than done.

Some of those cities already have been working on their own ordinances, others are open to a one-size-fits-all ban and a few prefer to wait and see what kinds of plastic bags would be ostracized and which businesses affected, officials told The Daily News.

The Board of Supervisors last week sent letters to all mayors in the county suggesting they get behind a countywide ban on plastic bags used to carry out food and other goods from grocery stores, pharmacies and restaurants. Environmentalists say the bags should be outlawed because they are not biodegradable and frequently end up littering the landscape and waterways.

Read the full article here.