Los Alamos board to discuss single-use plastic bag ordinance
Retailers could be barred from handing out single-use plastic carryout bags if Los Alamos County advances a proposed ordinance after the board’s review.
Retail checkout counters in Los Alamos could change if county leaders move ahead with a single-use plastic bag ordinance that would prohibit retail establishments from selling or providing single-use plastic carryout bags to customers. The Los Alamos County Environmental Sustainability Board took up the proposal Thursday, putting the issue on a path toward a recommendation to County Council on Aug. 4.
The county has been here before. Los Alamos County first began evaluating plastic-bag policy in 2015, after a citizen petition called for a ban on single-use plastic bags and a $0.10 fee on paper bags. After public meetings and an Open Forum survey, 80.1% of participants opposed a plastic bag ban and 72.2% opposed reducing the distribution of single-use bags, and the Environmental Sustainability Board recommended education over regulation.
A second petition in 2019 sought to ban plastic bags, straws and Styrofoam, prompting County Council to form a subcommittee. County history documents show the question stayed alive through the FY 2021 budget process, when council actions emphasized education campaigns rather than a ban.
The current proposal is moving through the county’s public meeting process. Los Alamos County says the board meets on the third Thursday of the month from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., and county sustainability materials say the broader goal is to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions while advancing county-wide sustainable practices. That places the bag debate inside a larger environmental agenda that also has to account for shopper convenience and how local merchants would operate under a new rule.
County-facing outreach materials have framed the issue as a community question, with officials saying they want input on the proposed ordinance. If adopted, the measure would affect the way customers leave the counter at grocery stores, convenience stores and other retail establishments that currently hand out plastic carryout bags.
A Citizen Portal summary of the board’s review put the scale of the issue at roughly 3.25 million bags a year in Los Alamos County. The same summary said a 10-cent paper-bag fee could generate about $325,000 annually, numbers that help explain why the policy debate has stayed active: the choice is not only about waste reduction, but also about the cost and mechanics of changing checkout practices for businesses and customers.
The board also asked for more local data gathering, more outreach to businesses and a follow-up update in September. With that, the county’s next step is clear: the Aug. 4 council recommendation will show whether Los Alamos is ready to turn a long-running discussion into an ordinance.
This article was produced by Prism’s automated news system from verified source data, official records, and press releases, then run through automated quality and moderation checks before publishing. The system is built and supervised by the people who set the standards it runs under. Read our full AI policy.
Did this article answer your question?
