State joins county in banning plastic bags
California Governor Jerry Brown on Tuesday signed into law the country’s first statewide ban on single-use plastic bags. The state law follows bans in more than 100 California municipalities, including San Luis Obispo County, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The legislation will ban plastic shopping bags at supermarkets, liquor stores and other retail locations, where customers have long relied on them, the New York Times reports. Paper bags and reusable plastic bags will be available at checkout counters for a 10-cent fee meant to prod shoppers to remember their own reusable bags, the reports says.
The measure is intended to reduce the number of plastic bags that clog rivers, snag on trees and take up space in landfills, the report says. The law is to take effect in July, but a coalition of bag makers has vowed to try to overturn it.
“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. “We’re the first to ban these bags, and we won’t be the last.”
The American Progressive Bag Alliance, which has led a fight against bans, says it will gather signatures to put a repeal of the law on the 2016 ballot in California, the report says.
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