California Banning Plastic Bags

California passes plastic bag ban, would be first such law in U.S.

SACRAMENTO Calif. (Reuters) - The California state legislature enacted a ban on plastic grocery bags on Friday near the end of its two-year session, a measure that if signed into law would become the first of its kind in America.

A number of cities and counties in California and other U.S. states, including Hawaii's Maui County, have made it illegal for grocery stores to pack purchases in plastic. But at the state level, opposition from plastic bag makers has usually prevailed.

The California Senate voted 22-15 for the bill, which must be signed into law by Sept. 30 by Democratic Governor Jerry Brown, who has not signaled a position on the measure.

"Single-use plastic bags not only litter our beaches, but also our mountains, our deserts, and our rivers, streams and lakes," said state Senator Alex Padilla, who sponsored the bill.

Padilla backed a similar measure last year but it failed by three votes. The fate of this bill was uncertain until the waning hours of the session after falling three votes short in the state's Assembly on Monday.

But after picking up the support of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, the bill passed a second vote in the Assembly.

The measure would ban grocery stores from handing out single-use grocery bags with customers' purchases, and provide money to local plastic bag companies to retool to make heavier, multiple-use bags that customers could buy.

Environmentalists have pushed for banning plastic bags, which are cheaper for supermarkets to use than paper bags, but create mountains of trash that is difficult to recycle. In California, there is particular concern that the bags, when swept out to sea, could harm ocean life.

After the defeat of his earlier bill, Padilla won the support of some California-based bag makers by including the funding for retooling. But in recent months, out-of-state manufacturers campaigned against the bill, even producing television advertisements targeting Padilla, who is running for secretary of state.

Cathy Browne, general manager at Crown Poly, a plastic bag manufacturer in Huntington Park, California, said the bill would lead to layoffs at companies like hers.

More than 10 billion plastic bags are used in California each year, according to an estimate by Californians Against Waste, an advocacy group supporting the bill.

Source

The California state legislature enacted a ban on plastic grocery bags on Friday near the end of its two-year session,

Estimates of size range from 700,000 square kilometres (270,000 sq mi) to more than 15,000,000 square kilometres (5,800,000 sq mi) (0.41% to 8.1% of the size of the Pacific Ocean), or, in some media reports, up to "twice the size of the continental United States"

I always reuse my grocery bags as garbage bags

Plastic bags are cheaper. I'd like to see places switch back to paper. They were much more durable than the cheap plastic bags are now.

Excuse me, but why exactly is this thread worthy?

That's why you get them to double bag it! lol *** see me walk in the store w/ my bicycle (I don't leave it outside lol) and try to give me one bag when I'm getting a gang of 32 oz drinks

My gripe w/ paper bags are the lack of handles (at least any one I've ever seen)

My gripe w/ paper bags are the lack of handles (at least any one I've ever seen)

That's honestly one of the reasons that plastic bags are so popular. There are paper bags with handles, but they cost a lot more than plastic bags, so supermarkets don't use them. My family has owned a grocery store for ~90 years, and they recently started carrying them in place of plastic bags as well as selling reusable bags at cost.

I'm for "protect the environment" and all, but this is stupid and a waste of time and money.

It relates to the Pacific Garbage patch... it's kind of a big deal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_garbage_patch

I always thought that even when i was around 5. I liked paper bags better but the lack of a handle is discouraging. Instead of hanging then form your hand you now have to actually lift them more. And the few paper bags that had handles usually ripped vry easily and they became worthless.

Besides, there is nothing wrong with the planet. Nothing wrong with the planet. The planet is fine. The PEOPLE are f***ed. Difference. Difference. The planet is fine. Compared to the people, the planet is doing great. Been here four and a half billion years. Did you ever think about the arithmetic? The planet has been here four and a half billion years. We’ve been here, what, a hundred thousand? Maybe two hundred thousand? And we’ve only been engaged in heavy industry for a little over two hundred years. Two hundred years versus four and a half billion. And we have the CONCEIT to think that somehow we’re a threat? That somehow we’re gonna put in jeopardy this beautiful little blue-green ball that’s just a-floatin’ around the sun?

The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through all kinds of things worse than us. Been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles…hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, worlwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages…And we think some plastic bags, and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference? The planet…the planet…the planet isn’t going anywhere. WE ARE!

- George Carlin