Gilroy - Taking a step toward a greener future, city leaders decided this month to begin scrutinizing all purchases to see if environmentally friendly alternatives might be available.

The move is part of a statewide trend toward a more ecological way of life. From San Francisco, with its mandate against non-biodegradable plastic bags, to Santa Cruz where Styrofoam packaging is under attack, the moves are aimed heavily at environmentally destructive plastics.

"We have to look out for our city. Buying the least expensive product is not always the healthiest for the city," said city councilmember Peter Arellano of the Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Policy approved June 11. The policy addresses such materials as energy efficient lightbulbs, acid-free paper and construction materials made out of recycled compressed wood.

The policy could signal that plastics, which have been blamed for polluting oceans and hurting marine wildlife, will be scrutinized as well.

"We don't want to buy something that has chemicals that will poison our water, poison the fish or will seep into our children's playgrounds," Arellano said. Putting restrictions or banning plastic bags, is something that he said may be looked at the city's next policy summit meeting, but hasn't been prioritized.

In the meantime, the city's large businesses have until July 1 to begin complying with AB 2449, a new state law requiring all stores larger than 10,000 square feet to provide recycling centers for customers to properly dispose of plastic bags.

"I think the whole city council is very excited about different ways to green our city," said Lesley Wilcox, Gilroy's environmental programs assistant.

Santa Clara County, not Gilroy itself, is leading the charge for environmental change. It has created a Recycling and Waste Reduction Commission that does everything from reducing landfill usage and assisting builders in recycling materials to advertising garage sales and training residents on how to compost and coordinate recycling programs.

Each city has a representative on the commission and as Gilroy's, Wilcox has worked on a campaign to make residents and businesses aware of the problems plastic bags present. During the April 11 Earth Day, the city created print and radio ads on environmental issues. Wilcox was all over the map, conducting a radio interview about plastic bags and giving away reusable canvas bags at Morgan Hill's Nob Hill Foods, one of five county locations where the commissioners provided the environmentally friendly bags.

Environmental educational outreach, yes, but Wilcox said not to expect drastic change - such as plastic bag bans - any time soon.

"It would be a burden on businesses and residents," she said. "It takes time to incorporate these changes into society. We want to be understanding of that process and not force things onto people."

Part of the issue is the higher cost of buying biodegradable or compostable bags made of corn starch or processed sugars, and whether businesses would agree to take on the cost.

In Santa Cruz, city officials know the damage seemingly innocuous items such as grocery bags can cause.

Because of California's 840 miles of coastline and because Gilroy sits 20 miles from the Pacific Ocean and is part of a watershed system that drains to the ocean, the area is particularly susceptible to the environmental damage improperly discarded plastic bags can cause. Bags can be washed down the watershed into the Pajaro River where they are carried out to the open sea. Though shoppers may use bags only passingly to carry groceries from the store to their homes, once they float into the ocean it's there to stay for "hundreds and hundreds of years," said Anne Hogan, an assistant civil engineer with Santa Clara County's Department of Public Works.

While the plastic will break down into smaller and smaller pieces, it never fully biodegrades, Hogan said. The stomachs of dead marine birds and animals found along the Pacific coastline often reveal large amounts of plastics of different kinds. The plastic can poison the marine wildlife over time, as well as causing blockages in their digestive tract that can prove fatal.

To large marine mammals such as sea turtles, a floating plastic bag - particularly the clear bags used in produce sections of grocery stores - looks enough like a jelly fish that they often try to eat them.

But the bags themselves are not the only problem. Plastics of all kinds have made it into the Pacific Ocean, getting caught up in a gyre created by currents moving up the Asian continent and down the North American coast, creating a well-documented disaster. In a 2003 Natural History Magazine article, oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer describes the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" as a floating, polluted mass of plastic debris roughly the size of Texas.

Such facts are what led the city of Capitola in Santa Cruz County to ban Styrofoam and restrict plastic bags.

A business coalition of plastics industries has launched a campaign called the Fill and Bag Federation aimed at dispelling concerns about plastic bags. Proper recycling, not banning and replacing plastic bags with more expensive paper and compostable ones, is the answer, said FBF Executive Director Donna Dempsey.

"We do understand that there are litter issues, that they end in rivers, that they float into the air and affect the environment and that's why we have been working really hard in public and private partnerships to set up recycling infrastructures," Dempsey said.

While a recyclable plastic bag costs 1 to 2 cents, she added, a paper bag costs 8 to 10 cents and a compostable plastic bag costs six to eight times as much as regular plastic.

Perry Shirley is a news intern and currently attends San Francisco State University.

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