California lawmakers send governor a ban on single-use plastic bags

Published in the L.A. Times by Patrick McGreevy, August 29, 2014

David Yeretsian places a bag of tomatoes in a single-use plastic bag for a customer at Sasoun Produce in Los Angeles in June. (Kevork Djansezian / Bloomberg)

The state Senate on Friday gave final legislative approval to a measure that would phase out single-use plastic bags in supermarkets, pharmacies and convenience stores as part of an effort to rid beaches and streets of litter.

The measure, which now goes to Gov. Jerry Brown for consideration, would allow stores to charge customers 10 cents to provide paper or reusable plastic bags as an alternative to single-use bags.

California would be the first state government to approve such a ban although the bags are outlawed throughout Hawaii because of local jurisdiction laws.

Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima) said his bill just makes statewide what more than 120 cities and counties in California have already done.

“We have seen a groundswell of action in this direction at the local level,” Padilla told colleagues. “But this is a statewide problem meriting a statewide solution.”

The ban would kick in for grocery stores and pharmacies on July 1, 2015, and would extend to convenience and liquor stores a year later. The 100 cities and counties that already have bans would be grandfathered in.

The bill was opposed by Republicans, including Ted Gaines of Rocklin. "I'm quite frankly offended by having the state dictate what we need and don’t need in our lives," he told his colleagues.

The measure was opposed by a group of bag-makers calling themselves the American Progressive Bag Alliance, which warned the legislation would hurt the economy while enriching grocery stores that can charge customers for paper and reusable bags.

 

Paul Bauer, a lobbyist for the group, said the bill will eliminate 2,000 jobs and replace one plastic bag with another. The current bags are not all wasted, he said.

“People put these to use all over their house doing a variety of different things,” Bauer told lawmakers at a hearing on the bill Friday.

Sen. Jean Fuller (R-Bakersfield) said the idea of the state training consumers on which products to use “absolutely is not the American way.”

With one-third of California under plastic-bag bans adopted at the local level, the evidence is that the bans are not hurting the economy, according to Mark Murray, executive director of Californians Against Waste.

“We now have years of data from cities and counties throughout California to show that this policy is not just working to reduce plastic-bag litter and waste and pollution, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but it’s saving consumers money and there has not been a loss of jobs,” Murray told lawmakers Friday.

The legislation would also provide $2 million in competitive loans to bag-makers to transition into making reusable bags.

The measure was supported by environmental groups, including Heal the Bay and the California League of Conservation Voters, as well as labor and business groups, including United Food and Commercial Workers Western States Council and the California Grocers Assn.

“This important step forward shows that we can achieve lasting victories for ocean and environmental health,” said Nathan Weaver, an oceans advocate with Environment California.

More than 14 billion single-use plastic bags are distributed by retailers each year and 88% of plastic bags are not recycled, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  In California, only 3% are recycled, according to CalRecycle.

Twitter: @mcgreevy99 

 

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8

California plastic bag ban heads to Jerry Brown

Published in the Sacramento Bee: Friday, Aug. 29, 2014 by David Siders

California lawmakers narrowly approved a sweeping plastic bag ban Friday, leaving Gov. Jerry Brown to decide the fate of the controversial bill in an election year.

The ban, the subject of years of debate, was one of the most heavily lobbied issues in the final days of the legislative session, with back-and-forth votes this week. The Senate approved the measure 22-15 on Friday.

The measure could be politically difficult for Brown, a longtime champion of environmental causes but a relatively moderate Democrat, especially on issues of concern to business.

In addition to banning lightweight plastic bags from grocery stores, the bill would have customers pay at least a dime for a paper or reusable plastic bag.

“The most simple elegant solution to avoid paying a 10-cent fee at a grocery store would be to bring a reusable bag, and that is the ultimate objective of this bill,” said Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Los Angeles, who carried the measure.

Opponents in the plastic and paper bag industries focused their attacks on the fee, characterizing it as a windfall for grocers. A prominent grocers union temporarily withdrew its support for the legislation after citing concerns that money from the fee would inflate store profits.

When Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, promoted the bill in his house, Jon Fleischman, the conservative blogger and former state GOP executive director, responded on Twitter with a hashtag: “NANNYSTATE.”

“This is big government taking over local agencies’ responsibilities,” said Sen. Jean Fuller, R-Bakersfield.

The bill reflected a compromise between some industry groups and environmentalists. It allows plastic manufacturers to apply for grants from a $2 million state fund to change their operations to make bags sanctioned by the new bill.

But manufacturers nationwide remained opposed, saying it would put bag makers out of work.

Padilla said he had not spoken with Brown about the plastic bag ban and that “we’re taking nothing for granted.”

Still, Padilla said he “worked extensively” with Brown administration officials on the grant program and content of the regulation. More than 90 California cities, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, have already banned single-use plastic bags, suggesting signing the bill may not be as difficult politically as it once might have been.

“We’ve seen a groundswell of support in city after city,” Padilla said.

Proponents argue the plastic bag ban will significantly reduce garbage and damage to wildlife.

Statewide legislation was rejected by lawmakers last year but revived with a provision including money to convert plastic bag plants to new uses. The Assembly passed the bill on Thursday, just days after it failed an initial test in the lower house.

Brown’s Republican opponent in the gubernatorial race, Neel Kashkari, said on Twitter on Thursday that the plastic bag ban effort was “embarrassing.”

“Poverty? Jobs? Education? Rebuilding the middle class?” wrote Kashkari, a former U.S. Treasury Department official. “Nope. Plastic bags.”

The plastic bag ban is one of hundreds of bills the governor will act on in coming weeks. His office typically does not comment on pending legislation, and it declined to comment Friday on the bag bill.

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Call David Siders, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 321-1215. Follow him on Twitter @davidsiders. Staff writer Laurel Rosenhall contributed to this report.

California: A Styrofoam State of Mind

posted August 7th, 2012 in the Huffington Post by Mathew Spiegl

The promise of a clean environment -- some people demand it, most expect it, a few deny it, but we all deserve it. So why is styrofoam* (expanded polystyrene foam) still polluting our tiny blue planet?

Before it ever makes it into our creeks and streams and rivers and the ocean; before it ever covers our beaches and parks and playgrounds; before it ever litters our streets and highways and clogs our storm drains; before it ever makes it into the stomachs of birds and marine life that starve and die; the plastic industry lobbyists do their dirty deed peddling foam cups and to-go food ware from behind closed doors, in secret hallways, and the darkest corners of the California State Capitol; leaving a metaphorical trail of foam litter swirling around at their feet like a plastic gyre in a snow globe as they move from one legislator to another.

We don't live in a snow globe, the environment is not a toy, and there is nothing innocent or pristine about the scene that is going to be played out in Sacramento in the next few weeks. We live in the real world, a world facing serious environmental threats from plastic pollution.
See the world through the eyes of child, because that is who we are doing this for.
But like a snow globe, nothing is going to happen in California, or anywhere else, unless we shake things up.

Shaking things up is what California is about to do as it stands to become the first in the nation to pass a statewide ban on expanded polystyrene foam to-go food ware. Senate Bill 568 by Senator Alan Lowenthal is the groundbreaking piece of legislation that can do it. The bill is cosponsored by Clean Water Action and the Surfrider Foundation.

Last year the SB 568 passed the Senate and made it to the Assembly floor, but the votes just weren't there. Now the bill has one last chance; a window of opportunity has opened. The California Legislature reconvened on Aug. 6, 2012, and the Assembly has until Aug. 31, to vote on the bill. If it passes and is signed by Governor Brown, it will be an environmental game changer for California and the rest of the world.

Demand and production of polystyrene food ware is already declining due to consumer preference for a better product made from alternative, biodegradable and compostable materials. If SB 568 passes, it will boost job growth in California related to manufacturing non-foam packaging.

But is California up to the challenge? Is it still the Golden State? Can it take the lead and show the world how the environment and the economy can coexist and prosper by forging new collaborative alliances?

Are Governor Brown and the Legislature willing to do what it takes to provide incentives to attract new entrepreneurs who will create new jobs and develop new markets for the new environmentally sustainable products that everyone now wants?

The only thing standing in the way of this landmark piece of legislation is a handful of members in the State Assembly (both Republican and Democrat), who are willing to obstruct the public consensus, and jeopardize the public good, by placing their own political aspirations above social responsibility and environmental stewardship.

Imagine the shame of a member of the State Assembly who opposes SB 568, but wants to represent a portion of the Big Sur coast; the iconic coastline that inspired great literary works by Steinbeck, Stevenson and Jeffers, and photographs by Ansel Adams and Edward Weston.

Picture "the greatest meeting of land and water in the world" (Point Lobos) littered with polystyrene foam because the Assembly member who represents that stretch of California's coast did the bidding for the plastic industry instead of the people he represents.

If a politician says to you that we just can't do this right now, and starts to look the other way, make them look into the eyes of child, because that is who we are doing this for, and it's just too important to wait.

If our elected representatives have any doubt that this is the right thing to do, or the right time to do it; if they don't fully appreciate what's at stake, then they haven't given it enough thought, and they need to think again.

This is our world to change, but it's the children's world to inherit, and we must make it a better place for the next generation. There are now more than 60 cities and counties in California that haven't waited for Sacramento to act; they have taken the initiative and forged ahead with their own polystyrene foam bans because they understand what's at stake for future generations.

The leaders of these local grassroots movements aren't environmental extremists; they're soccer moms and blue-collar dads who care about their children and recognize the perils of our convenience driven society and the bleak future their children and our planet will face under a suffocating blanket of plastic pollution if we don't do something bold and decisive now.

In May 2011, a Los Angeles Times editorial, stated that SB 568 should be passed, noting that the impact on eateries and consumers is tiny, while the cleanup of plastic ocean trash is imperative.

In February 2012, the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously (14 to 0) to support SB 568.

In a May 1, 2012 editorial, the San Jose Mercury News said that Silicon Valley must do its part to reduce plastic in the oceans by addressing the issue of single use plastic bags and foam food ware; a week later, the San Jose City Council adopted a position supporting SB 568, but not before the city's environmental services department determined that there was no indication of adverse business or other negative economic effects related to the banning of polystyrene foam food ware as explained here.

Some major figures in the ocean conservation community are also weighing in on the issue and urging the Legislature to act. A few months ago, legendary ocean explorer and environmentalist, Jean-Michel Cousteau gave me an exclusive statement regarding his support for styrofoam bans, including SB 568; his words are eloquent and powerful and should be read by all. His entire statement can be found here.

... to successfully and unconditionally prevent the degradation of our environment, we as a people, as a society, must change our ways. Specifically, we must recognize the harm caused by discarding styrofoam, and stop it... if styrofoam is banned -- if styrofoam is not available to litter and end up in our landfills -- we are all better off... In other words, in our efforts to preserve and protect our planet, let's use all realistic and obvious capabilities. Banning styrofoam is one of those capabilities...
-- Jean-Michel Cousteau, President Ocean Futures Society (April 12, 2012)

Governor Brown and the members of the Assembly would do well to heed Jean-Michel's words. It's time for the governor to show some leadership on this issue, and to impress upon the members of the Assembly that the cost to California, the cost to the taxpayers, the cost the environment, and most importantly, the cost to our children and future generations, that is being levied by the single-use disposable plastic industry, and the litter and pollution it leaves behind, is far too great to ignore any longer.

Californians simply can't afford to live in a styrofoam state of mind.

(*Styrofoam is a registered trademark of the DOW Chemical Company. "Styrofoam" is commonly, although mistakenly, used by the general public as a generic term for expanded polystyrene foam or EPS food ware products such as foam cups and clamshell take-out containers.)

Follow Matthew Spiegl on Twitter: www.twitter.com/MatthewSpiegl