LOS ANGELES – According to a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll, the statewide ban on plastic grocery bags has broad support among California voters.
Sixty percent of the voters who participated in the survey said that they support the ban, signed recently by Gov. Jerry Brown, which applies to single-use plastic sacks at grocery stores and pharmacies, starting July 1, 2015, and will expand to convenience and liquor stores a year later.
The overall support presents a challenge for industry groups hoping to overturn the ban. But the poll shows upending the law could be difficult. A third of Californians already live in cities with local plastic bag restrictions, such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, and many of those voters are already used to them.
“I keep a bunch of bags inside my car,” said Sherezada Caballero, 29, from Los Angeles. “Whenever I go into the store, I take them out of my trunk. It’s not that big of a deal.”
Even among those who do not live under local restrictions, 52 percent support the statewide ban.
“Even the people who haven’t been exposed to it don’t think it’s egregious,” said Drew Lieberman of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, the Democratic pollster on the bipartisan survey team.
The measure could still be placed on hold if opponents collect 504,760 signatures by the end of the year, to qualify their referendum for the November 2016 ballot.
If opponents of the ban succeed, it could mean a costly fight two years from now, between industrial bag manufacturers on one side and store owners, environmental groups, and workers’ unions on the other.
The plastic bag ban was one of the most contentious, lobbied-for issues in the Capitol this year.
Environmentalists pushing for the law say that plastic bags cause pollution to rivers and oceans, harming wildlife and natural preserves. Bag manufacturers fought the measure, arguing that it would cause job losses.
California has a long history of strict environmental regulation, and is the first state to enact the statewide ban. According to the poll, a majority among all races and income levels would vote to uphold it. Among the opposition, most said the law shows the government overstepping its boundaries.
“We ought to have the freedom to choose what we should want for ourselves,” said Phil Yarbrough, a 53-year-old Republican from Orange County told the Los Angeles Times. “There are serious problems in California. [The government] seems to be sidetracked with stuff that really aren’t the big issues.”
“If this becomes an ideological thing, that’s not enough to persuade voters in a Democratic-leaning state where voters aren’t necessarily opposed to more government if they agree with what it’s trying to do,” said David Kanevsky of American Viewpoint.
Other people opposed to the bag ban dislike the new costs that come with it. Instead of plastic bags, stores will offer paper bags for at least 10 cents each.
“If I go to your store, and buy anything in your store, you’re supposed to have the courtesy to give us the bags to carry things out of your store,” said Georgia Anderson, 87, from Los Angeles.
“I don’t feel like I’m supposed to pay 10 cents for a bag—paper, plastic, whatever,” she added.
Nicholas Snow, 52, from Palm Springs, supports the bag ban and predicted people would easily form new shopping habits should the laws come to pass.
“There’s probably people with hundreds of bags stuffed in a drawer in their kitchen,” Snow said. “They won’t miss those bags then they’re gone, and they’ll be able to use their drawer space for something else.”
(With reports from Los Angeles Times)
(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Midweek November 5-7, 2014 Sec. A pg.1)
