Californians have voted to enact a state law to ban plastic shopping bags, the first state in the nation to do so.
Proposition 67, the referendum on the state law (Senate Bill 270) passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in September 2014, is leading by 52 to 48 percent. The law had been challenged by the out-of-state plastic bag industry, which spent more than $6 million to defeat it. The bag manufacturers have issued a statement conceding.
Proposition 65, another measure put on the ballot by the plastic bag industry, was defeated by a 10 point margin, 55 to 45 percent.
The law will take effect immediately. It was originally designed to take effect on July 1, 2015 for grocery stores and July 1, 2016 for other retailers.
More than 151 California communities already have local plastic bags in place. The passage of Prop 67 extends the ban to the remainder of the state.
The yes vote on Prop 67 was backed by a diverse coalition of more than 500 organizations, ranging from environmental groups to business organizations and dozens of cities and counties. They included: Environment California, Heal the Bay, the NAACP, Save the Bay, the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, the California League of Cities, Azul, and the California Labor Federation. The Yes campaign also received the support of more than 40 newspapers.
More than 40 percent of California communities are already living without plastic shopping bags through local ordinance.
More than 70 percent of the Yes on 67 campaign’s funding came from environmental contributors. More than 4,000 individual contributors donated to the campaign. The plastic bag industry had just four contributors.
Published in the January 2017 Edition of American Recycler News