Americans use 100 billion plastic bags a year. Just one of those plastic bags takes 1,000 years to break down. California was poised to become the first state to initiate a law that would ban the use of these long-lasting plastic bags, but it failed to pass.
The Senate killed the Single-Use Bag Reduction Act (AB 1998) in a 14-21 vote on Aug. 31, USA Today reported. The bill would have banned the use of plastic bags at places such as grocery stores and pharmacies, and enforced a 5-cent charge for recycled paper bags. Supporters hoped the bill would significantly reduce Californians’ use of plastic bags, providing less to be tossed into the environment.
California lawmakers said the bill was too expensive for consumers, who would have acquired the cost of the recycled paper bags that grocers cover now. This decision, of course, came after major pressuring from the bill’s main opponent: plastic bag makers.
“We congratulate Senate members for discarding a costly bill that provides no real solutions to California’s litter problem and would have further jeopardized California’s already strained economy,” Tim Shestek, senior director of state affairs for the American Chemistry Council, said. The American Chemistry Council, which represents plastic bag makers like Exxon Mobil Corp and Dow Chemical Company, were the primary opponents of the measure.
From the beginning, the bill faced fierce opposition from the American Chemistry Council (ACC). In a press release that came out Sept. 1, the group claimed that the bill would have put a 1,000 Californians out of work, created a hidden grocery tax and “created a $4 million new state bureaucracy.”
The American Chemistry Council also targeted constituents through television ads that highlighted California’s unemployment and deficit problems. “What are some politicians focused on? Grocery bags!” the ad said. In addition to television spots, the ACC also paid for radio ads and spent millions of dollars in lobbying fees.
In an opinion piece for the Los Angeles Times, Keith Christman, the managing director for plastics markets at the American Chemistry Council, said Californians should be “working together to find litter and recycling solutions that don’t cost consumers more money and don’t put people out of work.” However, Christman did not suggest a more effective solution to cut down on plastic bag pollution. If banning plastic bags won’t help the litter problem, it’s hard to say that keeping them around will have the opposite effect.
Opposite the ACC and plastic bag makers were people concerned with the direction California’s environment is taking. AB-1998 was supported by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, various environmental groups and the California Grocers Association (CGA), which said in a press release that it supported the bill because the association seeks “one statewide, uniform standard and not a patchwork of ordinances regulated by local jurisdictions.”
“This issue is not going away,” CGA CEO Ronald Fong told USA Today. “The future is in reusable bags. It’s the right thing to do.”
Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, D-Santa Monica, who wrote the bill, told USA Today that it was a sad day for California. “Communities across the state were waiting for the state to adopt a uniform, statewide ban on single-use bags before they adopt their own ordinances. The state failed them.”
The fight for a ban on plastic bags is nothing new. In 2008, the Los Angeles Times reported that the Los Angeles City Council planned a bag ban to start in July of 2010 if the state didn’t impose a price on the bags beforehand. Plasticsnews.com said California has been trying to ban or tax plastic bags for three straight years. Some local bag bans have succeeded, but none at the state level.
Before the vote on AB-1998, officials in Santa Monica and Manhattan Beach vowed to ban plastic bags even if the bill did not pass. The Santa Monica City Council will meet on Oct. 12 to discuss proposed legislation, according to a Santa Monica press release from Aug. 26.
Santa Monica’s version of the bag ban would forbid retailers in the city limits to use single-use carry out bags. It would also establish a “Green Fee” for paper bags that will be available instead. While the state lags behind, hindered by pressure from lobbyists, cities like Santa Monica are pushing forward.
Local governments in California, if not all over the country, have plenty of reasons to ban plastic bags. The fact that Americans only recycle 0.6 percent of the 100 billion plastic bags they throw away is just one of many.
Plasticsnews.com reported that 19 billion bags a year are used in California, most of which end up on California’s many miles of coastline. In an editorial on June 24, the Los Angeles Times reported that plastic bags are the third most common form of trash found on California beaches.
Plastic bags have a significant impact on marine wildlife. The California Progress Report said that marine life such as whales, sea turtles and birds have been found with plastic bags in their stomachs. The California Progress Report went on to say that plastic bags contribute to killing or injuring 267 species.
Defeated, the statewide plastic bag ban now goes back to the drawing board. If history is any indicator, Californians can be sure they’ll see it in the years ahead. But for now, too many Californian politicians will continue to listen to the chemical industry and plastic bags will continue to pollute the state they call home.
