The Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to ban plastic grocery bags by 2010, unless the state imposes a 25-cent fee on the customers who request them.

Council members said they hoped the ban would urge consumers to begin carrying canvas or reusable bags with them, so that the amount of plastic that pollutes the world’s oceans is reduced.

According to Los Angeles Times, Councilman Bill Rosendahl, who represents such coastal neighborhoods as Venice and Playa del Rey, considered the voting an important moment for the city, as the decision “to bite the bullet and go with something that is more ecologically sensitive than what we've ever done before,” was very brave.

In Seattle, the utilities committee also voted to ban foam food containers, but decided to delay the ban until 2010.

The bag fee in the city will mean that all convenience, grocery or drugstores must require 20 cents for each paper or plastic bag used. The stores would keep 5 cents from each bag co cover costs associated with administering the fee, while small stores that gain less than $1 million a year will keep the entire fee.

The city will use $1.5 million of the estimated $10 million in annual bag-fee revenue to provide each household with at least one reusable bag.

Opponents of the decision warned that the new policy would have a devastating effect on the region’s packaging companies.

Los Angeles City officials estimate that Los Angeles consumers use 2.3 billion plastic bags each year, and, according to the city's Bureau of Sanitation, an estimated 5% of plastic bags are recycled across the state.

The ban was proposed by Councilman Ed Reyes, who called plastic bags “the graffiti of the L.A. River,” the Times reported.