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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The nation’s first statewide ban on single-use plastic bags at drug, grocery and convenience stores has been signed by California Gov. Jerry Brown, but a national coalition of plastic bag manufacturers has vowed to seek a referendum to repeal the law, which is scheduled to take effect in July.
Under SB270, plastic bags will be phased out of checkout counters at large grocery stores and supermarkets starting next summer and convenience stores and pharmacies in 2016.
The law does not apply to bags used for fruit, vegetables or meat, or to shopping bags used at other retailers. It allows grocers to charge a fee of at least 10 cents for using paper bags.
State Sen. Alex Padilla, (D., Los Angeles), credits the momentum for statewide legislation to the more than 100 cities and counties, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, that already have such bans.
The law marks a milestone for environmental activists who have successfully pushed plastic bag bans in cities across the United States, including Chicago, Austin and Seattle. Hawaii is also on track to have a de facto statewide ban, with all counties approving prohibitions.
“This bill is a step in the right direction — it reduces the torrent of plastic polluting our beaches, parks and even the vast ocean itself,” Brown said in a signing statement. “We’re the first to ban these bags, and we won’t be the last.”
But plastic bag manufacturers have pushed back aggressively through their trade group, the American Progressive Bag Alliance, which aired commercials in California criticizing the ban as a cash giveaway to grocers that would lead to a loss of thousands of manufacturing jobs.
“If this law were allowed to go into effect, it would jeopardize thousands of California manufacturing jobs, hurt the environment and fleece consumers for billions so grocery store shareholders and their union partners can line their pockets,” Lee Califf, executive director of the manufacturer trade group, said in a statement.
Likewise, the American Forest and Paper Association, a trade organization representing paper bag makers, says the bill unfairly penalizes consumers who use their commonly recycled products while holding reusable plastic bags to a lower standard for recyclable content.
Proponents of the law point to the fact that the bill includes $2 million in loans for plastic bag manufacturers to shift their operations to making reusable bags.
