The highly anticipated decision by the city of Los Angeles on whether or not to ban the single use plastic bag from retail stores and restaurants was announced last Wednesday, with an overwhelming 13 to 1 vote in favor of the ban, making Los Angeles the nation's largest city to prohibit plastic bags and the state's 48^th city overall, joining San Francisco, San Jose and Long Beach.

Sixty-seven supermarket and pharmacy chains are considering whether or not to seek a block on the ban of plastic bags that passed on November 16th in Los Angeles County.

The ban would not only prohibit the use of plastic bags in more than 1,000 stores in Los Angeles by January, 2012, but it would also include a steep 10-cent surcharge on all paper bags used in place of plastic, encouraging shoppers to bring their own reusables or simply go without.  Malibu and the ever-progressive San Francisco have also banned plastic bags from being used by retailers, but neither city has instituted the paper surcharge.