California poised to ban plastic bags [Updated]

Legislation that would ban many California stores from giving away single-use plastic bags has taken a step closer to becoming law.  AB 1998 was passed by the Assembly Appropriations Committee on Friday and will be voted upon next Friday by the full Assembly. If passed and signed by the governor, the law would go into effect Jan. 1, 2012.

Each year, Californians use 19 billion plastic bags, only 5% of which are recycled, according to the California Integrated Waste Management Board. The average California resident uses 600 plastic bags per year.

"This legislation starts breaking our addiction to single-use plastic packaging, which has gotten completely out of control," said Mark Gold, president of Heal the Bay, a Santa Monica-based environmental group supporting AB 1998. 

"We've been pushing on this a really long time -- for six years through four different legislative vehicles," said Gold, adding that previous efforts to reduce plastic bag use by charging customers a per-bag fee had failed to garner support, especially in a down economy. "Hopefully, persistence will pay off for the oceans."

Over the past couple of years, numerous California cities have proposed plastic-bag bans; five cities have passed them, including Malibu and San Francisco.

Uniformity is the main reason the California Grocers Assn. is supporting the bill.

"There have been a number of different proposals and different cities have approached this in different ways," said Dave Heylen, spokesman for the California Grocers Assn. in Sacramento, a group that represents 500 retail grocery companies that operate 8,000 stores in California. "This bill would impact supermarkets, chain pharmacies, local neighborhood markets, convenience stores and liquor stores, so this bill provides a uniform statewide standard to help level the playing field among food retailers."

Heylen added that a ban on single-use, carry-out bags bring the most environmental gain with the least competitive disruption for retailers.

"We think this could be historic legislation that is a model for other states to follow," said Gina Goodhill, oceans advocate for the L.A.-based environmental group, Environment California.

[Updated on June 1 at 3:45 p.m.: The American Chemistry Council, however, opposes the bill, primarily for economic reasons. According to Tim Shestek, the council's director of state affairs, the legislation could "eliminate or put at risk 500 or so good-paying manufacturing jobs in the industry, primarily in the L.A. area," he said. Shestek said the bill could also cost the state $1.5 million in new spending to implement the program, and it runs the risk of raising costs for consumers who forget to bring reusable bags to the store and who would be required to buy the 40% post-consumer, recycled wastepaper bags provided for in the legislation.]

-- Susan Carpenter

Photo: Heal the Bay

Comments

[F.H.Hayek]

How Shameful. We are facing insolvency and the legislature wants to talk about plastic bags.

[Derek]

There are things called cloth bags.

For those opposed to this bill, come help pick up all of the plastic bags on the streets and highways every weekend. Or better yet post your street address, and as I collect them in the hundreds, I'll dump them on your lawn, every weekend.

[Ashley]

I'm wondering what stores will do to distinguish shoplifters who don't use designated bags. or what could possibly happen as a negative in theft and damages to store owners and chain grocers

[JC]

This ban on plastic bags is brilliant! Though our economy is terrible right now and we have many other problems, so does our environment. If we don't start acting now and helping our planet, our future is going to be quite grim.

In Europe, people already pay $0.05 or more for plastic bags at grocery stores. Therefore, most people bring their own reusable bags. And even though some may claim that the whole world uses plastic bags so it should be okay, that is not a good enough reason to continue using 19 billion bags in California alone!! We should be innovators. I hope the rest of the world will see what we are trying to accomplish and follow suit.

[Sherri]

Let's hope this becomes law. Plastic bags keep us dependent on petroleum....and we see what a mess that makes! It costs billions each year to clean up the plastic bags the blow around all over the place. The CO2 they create, just manufacturing them, and on and on. Get rid of them already!

[Erik]

Its ironic that the people who say that California has gone downhill, and its not great like it was don't realize that "when it was great" we didn't have these bags. Paper bags can work as trash bags too, or you can put them on the compost, or recycle them as paper. Your choice.
It does not matter how thoughtful the user of the plastic bag is: they blow out of trash bins, fly off trucks, or get dragged out by animals and then blow away down the storm drains or get stuck in trees.

[Ana]

I don't know how much some of you understand about commerce and industry, but if you think you aren't already paying for those plastic bags you're running off with every time you go shopping, you're dead wrong.
The cost of your plastic bags is already figured into the costs of anything and everything you buy- from grocery stores to take-out bags at restaurants. You pay for your disposable ANYTHING- be it bags, utensils, take out boxes, little plastic swords that used to have fruits on them in your drinks, toothpicks, napkins, EVERYTHING. The cost of those items is included in the price of anything you buy. Even if you don't use the disposables, you're being charged for them. Why? Because retailers don't want to hear you complain when they tell you they're adding the 15 cent charge for your grocery bag. Why should they pay for something that you're holding your groceries in? Plastics companies don't make them for free, so why in the world would you assume that you get them for free? The fact is, plastic is a permanent material that is used in disposable products because it is so cheap to make that you can be charged for owning it for just a few minutes- again and again and again.
Wake up, guys. This is a business we're trying to run.

[ScottyDog]

Plastic bags are not the problem but the California State Legislature that dreams up these job killing bills. This is just like soda tax, how is that working out for us?

These people are insane and so are the environmental wackos posting that they are all for this ban. The government has no business telling the public what kind of bags or light bulbs we use.

We are rapidly losing our liberty and freedoms in the name of environmentalism.

What's next, toilet paper?

They should be protecting our job loses instead they are raising our taxes and writing more useless laws that will kill California jobs. Who is going to left to pay these morons salaries?

[D. Cohen]

BAN THE BAG SUPPORT AB 1998.

CALL YOU CA STATE ASSEMBLY PEOPLE AND TELL THEM THAT YOU ARE SICK OF 11BILLION TONS OF PLASTIC ENDING UP IN OUR OCEANS EVERY YEAR...AND KILLING UNTOLD AMOUNTS OF MARINE LIFE AND BIRDS AND DESTROYING CORAL REEFS.

So you are worried about the BP leak? well your plastic bags are contributing to a much larger amount of petroleum based plastics in the Ocean than that.

WE LOVE THE PLASTIC POLLUTION COALITION.org
sign their pledge to REFUSE single use plastics!

Bring your own canvas bags with you everyday, you lazy people

[SeeBeck]

When will we learn that banning plastic without banning paper just makes things worse? http://bit.ly/boqkRf

[Examined a Little further.]

I like the idea of putting a price on the bags, but I like the idea of getting rid of them much more.

It's great that people have mentioned they recycle them by using them in other ways. However, you haven't taken full PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY (as some of you have put it) for your actions.

Ultimately when you're done with them and throw them out, they still end up in a landfill where they can get wrapped around an animal's neck and legs where likely the animal will starve that way. Or the wind blows them so they get stuck in trees. Or they end up in the ocean where they are confused for jellyfish and consumed by sea life that normally eat jellyfish (just one example of plastic's impact on our seas). Then the animal chokes to death on what was your windy weather bike handle protector. Face it, your personal responsibility has extended only as far as what's convenient for you, making you not much different than the people you say take no personal responsibility.

[joseph cecil smith]

the wisest way is actually just put a price on the bags, just like we do to bottles. Then the bags will be picked up by the same people who make $100 a day picking up bottles. Also, this discourages throwaway and encourages re-use. Banning bags will raise prices on replacements.. govt actions have unintended results, as we see in the smog rules that make thousands of buildings across the state filled with nothing but a test-only smog station, and you have to pay $70 for them to put a 2 minute test on your tailpipe.. waste of economic resources, and things like this is why our state economy is innefficient - NOT THE ONLY REASON, but one.
peace

[Paul Taylor Examiner]

Yeah -- plastic bags don't kill the environment... people do.
Another half-baked eco-obsession that will add to your cost of living in bankrupt California.
Militant eco-groups and green-obsessed beauracrats have become an "axis of antagonism" that we can no longer afford.

[Gloria]

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!

[DOUGSAFE]

No plastic bags at grocery stores, does that mean groceries will cost a little less?
Or will unemployment rise, due to grocery bag manufacturer having to lay off employees … thanks to California legislation.

[Parvo Pup]

THIS is what my tax dollars goes for???????????

Feel good BS about plastic bags while the rest of Rome burns to the ground????

Hey there legislators - quit wasting my money and your time with meaningless crap like this and focus on getting this state out of the Greece pit.

And what am I supposed to do without my plastic bags? Don't you realize that they also get used to pack the kid's lunches, used as litter bags in the car, and as trash can liners in the bathrooms of my house. Not to mention how convenient they are to hang on my bike handlebars when I run to the store - what should I do now - sell the bike and buy a pack mule?

The only bright spot in our future is when this state finally goes fully broke -we won't be able to pay these morons and they will go home!

[Michael]

Good going! Finally the legislature is doing something right. For those who think this is "Democrat" Party nanny government I would say this. Your right to do whatever the hell you want ends when it impacts my life and my environment. Plastics are a scourge on humanity. While we certainly can't get away from them in some things we should be trying to eliminate their use entirely.

[mooremedia]

Goodbye Plastic Bags! Never liked you, never will!!

[markiejoe]

Ban old bags too.

[Jeffrey12342001]

It is about time. There is no reason all people cannot have reusable canvas bags and bring them into the stores each time they shop.

[Tom]

MH you fool, those opposed to this legislation are not as clueless as you, or as you think. We are opposed to the government interference in our lives and our choice to patronize businesses that provide us with free plastic bags to carry our purchases. We do not want to have our lifestyles infringed upon due to the behavior of those who are irresponsible. You should instead direct your ignorance to those who dispose of those bags irresponsibly or improperly rather that the wide swath of individuals like myself who recycle their bags or reuse them for other purposes. Perhaps a bill like the bottle bill with deposits and refunds would be more productive than this legislation and the postings of the ignorant and uneducated like you, Jay and Dario.

[Ed Wood]

The classic way left-wing types use for dealing with a problem: make the behavior illegal, then hire more goverment employees to regulate and enforce, which ultimately requires more taxes.

Usually the far better way is MAKE THE BEHAVIOR EXPENSIVE so that many people (but not all) stop doing it.

How about a meaningful tax on plastic bags, like most developed countries. That will sharply reduce their availability. And it requires little regulation and enforcement while increasing, not decreasing, the government's revenue.

ObamaCare proponents had the same problem. Their law turns people into criminals if they don't buy coverage. Instead it should have made things financially painful for the people who choose no coverage.

[Paul M. Mock]

My cats will miss them terribly! These bags are their favorite playthings. :(

[greg]

Wow! Comments about killing those who don't agree with this law?! Why so hateful? The law is basically unnecessary for those who believe and practice personal responsibility. California has bigger problems than this, but it is indicative of exactly what's wrong with our state: Our priorities. How many things does the state really need to be involved in? Where does it stop?

[antienvromentalist]

I am anti-enviromentalist so i will pay for plastic bag and then throw them in the store parking lot,i hope they enjoy the cleaning up part

[Tom]

Be careful Dario, someone could be waiting for YOU with a plastic bag and a roll of duct tape. Tone down the rhetoric and watch what you post.

[Joseph L Cooke]

"The State would be better off if we banned California legislators." -
http://josephlcooke.blogspot.com

[Sherri]

This is AWESOME news!!! I haven't used plastic bags in years - it is so easy to bring reusables. I have to say it was heartbreaking to read some of the posts from people who oppose it.

[Mr Bretz]

I heard Glenn Beck rant for about half an hour because of the SF law. I say the whole country should ban them and Glen might have a heart attack.

[Bonny]

Mommy government, can you please ban more things so that I can feel good about myself?

[Leni Park]

When the totalitarian green movement realizes brown paper bags hurt the environment more (uh, cutting down trees?), they'll ban any type off bag. Ship the hippies off to Cuba and see how Left they really are.

[davd]

Ewww plastic! This is a bogus bone tossed to environmentalists. Plastic bags are the least of our environmental issues, especially in the context of global warming. Great for a phony politician's resume, but not a big deal for the environment.

Having said that, I hasten to add that using plastic bags is dumb. Paper is a better option, and taking your own cloth bag is better than that.

[Vinster]

So now instead of plastic bags, we'll get paper bags instead.

Great. Let's cut down another forest.

[Ann]

I use these bags for garbage bags. Great, now I have to spend more money buying plastic bags just because some people are too lazy to recycle. There is a reason why grocery stores switched to plastic bags; they work better. I live in a city that banned plastic grocery bags so I do most of my shopping in other cities. Now I guess I will have to join the crowd and just leave California. I am so sick of this crap, if my representative votes for this, I'll vote for someone new.

[DS]

Great! Now I'll have an excuse not to pick up my dog's poop from the neighbor's lawn.

[louisa]

Bags equal oil which eqals MPH

[mike]

how will i get my trash bags california?!

[Pat Castro]

I am disgusted with JoJoe's commentary. I am sure some illegal immigrants don't have good hygienic habits. But to call all of them filthy pigs is way out of line my friend. I think you need some sensitivity training to cure your revolting negativity.

[louisa]

Plastic = oil... Can we use it better?

[Counter]

Reading the environmental nuts on these posts make me sick.

This should be a matter of choice and this also illustrates the ineptness of the Dems in Sac town.

Cut spending, fix the budget issue, and do your damn jobs without cutting the probability of new jobs for people.

Anyone that votes for these loons needs to have their head examined. This is the reason our fine state.. formally fine state is now mediocre.

[Greg]

Buy cloth bags and take them to the store when you shop for groceries. You'll find they're much better for lugging around groceries than paper or plastic. I'd use them even if they weren't better for the environment. For small purchases at convenience stores, pharmacies and such they will simply provide small paper bags.

It ain't that difficult.

Regarding who will pay for Tom's bags - that'd be Tom. Since the cloth bags will last for years I'd estimate his cost at about $2/year or so. Sorry Tom, hope you can afford it.

[MH]

HALLELUJAH!!!

This is the best news I've heard all day.

Anyone who is clueless enough to whine about this law should go choke on a plastic bag.

[Jonathan]

This is wonderful news. Plastic bags are a scourge and I will be overjoyed to see them go.

[Dario]

Anyone opposed to banning these plastic bags needs to put one over their heads for about half an hour. OK, great job. Thanks.

[andrew s.]

About time! Although plastic beverage bottles are a bigger threat than these bags.

[JR]

@LKF: fyi the whole world uses these bags, but most of the world actually charges for them, unlike the US. Almost everywhere in Europe you have to pay say five, ten cents or so per bag at the grocery- you learn to pack your bag better, or better, to buy- and reuse!!- canvas or linen bags to haul your groceries or purchases.

[ben]

In Ireland, a tax on plastic bags was introduced. Essentially, each plastic bag handed out costs the consumer an extra 15 cents. After the tax scheme began in March 2002, it is estimated the plastic bags available at stores have been decreased by 90%

[R. L. Meadows]

My Comment Is Why Can't We Recycle This Item As We Do Plastic And Old Tires.It Would Help By Giving Jobs To Our Over 2 Million Unemployed In Our State.

[Christopher]

Good riddance. I won't miss plastic bags at all. I haven't used one in ages. Anybody who shops at Costco already knows how to do without them.

[Daniel]

Each year I participate in beach/creek cleanups. By far the most common type of trash is platic bags! Please pass this thing already!