Article author:
Associated Press
Kathleen Ronayne
Sacramento, CA (AP) — Companies that sell plastic-wrapped shampoos, food, and other products have them on the shelves of their California stores. If you want their products in the Associated Press, pollutants.
A major law passed and signed by Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday aims to significantly reduce disposable plastic packaging in the state and significantly increase the recycling rate of what remains. increase. It sets the country's strictest requirements for the use of plastic packaging, and lawmakers say they want to set a precedent for other states to follow.
"We are destroying the planet and we must change it," Democratic Senator Bob Harzberg said before voting on the bill. Under the
bill, plastic producers will need to reduce disposable plastics by 10% by 2027 and increase it to 25% by 2032. Switch to a different material or make the product easily reusable or refillable. Also, by 2032, plastics will need to be recycled at a rate of 65%, a significant increase from today's rate. It does not apply to plastic beverage bottles that have their own recycling rules.
Efforts to limit plastic packaging have failed in Congress for years, but a similar voting bill threat that goes in front of voters in November urged business groups to come to the negotiating table. rice field. After the bill was passed, three key supporters of the bill expressed concern that the plastics industry would try to weaken its requirements, but withdrew it from the ballot.
The state has passed a ban on disposable shopping bags, straws and other items, and PET bottles will soon be disallowed in national parks. However, this material is still ubiquitous and is used in everything from laundry detergent and soap bottles to packaging vegetables and lunch meat. Most plastic products in the United States are not recycled, with millions of tons eventually flowing into landfills and the world's oceans. It harms wildlife and appears in drinking water in the form of microplastics.
Crab-to-whale marine animals off the Pacific coast ingest plastics that flow into the ocean, said Amy Wolfram, senior manager of marine policy at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. .. She called the bill a "great start" to tackle the big problem.
Plastic manufacturers form their own industry group tasked with developing plans to meet the requirements that require approval from the state's recycling department. We need to raise $ 500 million a year from producers for a fund aimed at cleaning up plastic pollution. Maine, Oregon, and Colorado have similar producer responsibility systems.
We do not ban the packaging of Styrofoam foods, but they must be recycled at a rate of 30% by 2028. Some supporters say it is a de facto ban because the material cannot be recycled. Ballots would have banned materials altogether. It would have given more power to state recycling agencies to implement the rules, rather than organizing them into the industry.
Senator Ben Allen, a Democrat of Santa Monica who led the bill negotiations, is often at odds with environmentalists and industry to create together. Positive changes that were said to represent the example of a group.
He called it "a powerful and meaningful compromise that puts California at the forefront of tackling major global issues."
Despite withdrawing the ballot initiative, bill proponents said they were still concerned that the industry would try to reduce the bill. The three supporters of the initiative were Linda Escalante of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Michael Sangiacomo, former head of waste management company Recology. Caryl Heart, a member of the California Coastal Commission.
Joshua Baka of the American Chemistry Council, who represents the plastics industry, said the bill would reduce the amount of recycled plastic that could be used to meet the 25% reduction requirement. Limit "new and innovative recycling technologies" that are said to be unreasonably restricted.
The bill prohibits the incineration and burning of plastics, but leaves some possible forms of so-called chemical recycling.
Beyond Plastics President Judith Enck said the California bill is far more advanced than any other state when it comes to reducing plastic pollution, but it's still inadequate. She said that producers could refill their products or switch to other materials, reducing the overall packaging by only about 10%. She also said she relied heavily on failed plastic recycling policies.
She said plastic production will triple worldwide by 2050.