SACRAMENTO September 1, 2010 — Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, D-Santa Monica, expressed disappointment today in the Senate’s rejection of her bill to ban single-use carryout bags in California supermarkets, pharmacies and convenience stores.
AB 1998 failed passage on a 14-21 vote.
“This is a sad day for California,” Assemblywoman Brownley said. “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. But, this is an environmental movement that won’t be stopped, even by big-money interests like the American Chemistry Council. It’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when consumers bring their own bags and become good stewards of the environment.”
In the meantime, shoppers in California will encounter a confusing array of bag bans and restrictions that vary from city to city and county to county. For this reason, the California Grocers Association, the United Food and Commercial Workers, the California Labor Federation, the California Retailers Association and other business groups supported AB 1998.
Californians spend $25 million a year to collect and dispose of many of the 19 billion single-use plastic bags used by residents of the state every year. Local governments also spend money cleaning up the bags. For example, in 1994, the annual cost to clean 31 miles of beaches along Los Angeles County was over $4 million.
Four cities already have bans in place: San Francisco, Palo Alto, Fairfax and Malibu. Other communities that recently announced they are preparing to adopt bag ban ordinances include Los Angeles County, Santa Monica and Manhattan Beach.
Countries with bans already in place include China, India and Bangladesh.
AB 1998 would have banned single-use carryout bags beginning in 2012 for supermarkets and pharmacies, and in 2013 for liquor stores and convenience stores. The measure would have allowed stores to give away reusable bags for free until the ban took effect, after which shoppers who forget their own bags would have been able to buy reusable bags at the stores. The stores also would have been allowed to sell recycled paper bags of 40 percent post-consumer material at cost, not for any profit.
Stores would have been required to provide reusable or recycled paper bags to shoppers who cannot afford them.
AB 1998 promoted new green jobs for reusable bag makers, and would have established a grant and loan program from existing state funds to retain jobs in California for the manufacture of reusable, durable plastic bags. A grocery store recycling program for plastic bags that currently is in place would have been extended under the legislation.
Marine debris has injured or killed 267 species worldwide. Plastic bags have been found in the stomachs of whales, birds and sea turtles, who mistake them for jellyfish. The bags also contribute to the great Pacific Gyre, a huge cauldron of plastic bits that float in an area twice the size of Texas out in the Pacific Ocean.
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