AN effort to end California’s exclusive state ban on single-use plastic grocery bags advanced this week after manufacturers spent millions on a campaign to gather signatures for a proposed ballot initiative to overturn the ban.
Already passed by the state legislature and signed by Calif. Governor Jerry Brown, the bag ban known as Senate Bill 270 is widely supported by environmentalist groups that argue that plastic bags contribute to litter and pollution. However, the measure has triggered a harsh reaction from plastic bag manufacturers, saying that the ban could cost jobs and their product can be easily recycled.
“You just take it back to the grocery store and stuff it into a container and it gets recycled,” said Jon Barrier, a spokesman for the American Progressive Bag Alliance (APBA), an industry organization supported by bag manufacturers funding the campaign to repeal the measure.
The group contributed most of the $3 million spent to gather signatures for a ballot initiative to overturn the state’s ban, which is supposed to take effect next July. The alliance said Monday, Dec. 29 that it had submitted more than 800,000 signatures to county governments, and all they needed were 504,760 to place the measure on the ballot.
Environmentalists have long pushed for the bag ban, claiming that although plastic is cheaper than paper, it creates mountains of trash. In California, the particular concern is that plastic bags harm ocean life and environments.
Hundreds of cities and counties, including Los Angeles, have already implemented their own local bans or imposed taxes for using plastic bags. The new law would require grocery shoppers to use reusable bags or buy paper bags for 10 cents each.
“SB 270 was never a bill about the environment,” said Lee Califf, head of the APBA. “We are pleased to have reached this important milestone in the effort to repeal a terrible piece of job-killing legislation.”
Mark Murray, a spokesman for California vs. Big Plastic, supports the statewide ban and argues that manufacturers are just trying to protect their revenues at California’s expense.
“Virtually all of the plastic bags sold in California are produced by just three out-of-state corporations,” Murray said. “And these corporations and their chemical suppliers have made it clear that they will do and say anything, and pay any price to continue to sell plastic bags into California.”
“It is clear that the plastic bag industry is more interested in their own profits than reducing an unnecessary source of pollution and waste that threaten California’s wildlife and pollutes our ocean, coast, and our communities,” he continued.
It’s not clear whether the proposal will make the ballot until the state can confirm that 504,760 of the submitted signatures are valid. If so, the referendum will be placed and implementation of the new law could be postponed until after the November 2016 elections.
Democrat Alex Padilla, the incoming secretary of state who must check the ballot initiative signatures, authored the ban as a state senator and was the target of plastic industry attack ads while running for statewide office in 2014.
The 16-month delay in implementation of SB 270 will allow manufacturers to continue producing plastic bags until voters act, and in the meantime sales of those plastic bags could amount to $145 million, according to an estimate from a group supporting the plastic bag ban.
Polling shows the bag ban is popular in California, and six in 10 voters would support it.
(With reports from Reuters and the Washington Post)
(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Weekend January 3-6, 2015 Sec. A pg.5)
