Preliminary Release:

AB 2058 (Plastic Bags) Press Conference

Where: Santa Monica (Specific location TBA)

When: Saturday May 17, 11 AM

More About AB 2058:

-Author: Assembly Member Lloyd Levine (LA), Coauthors: Assembly Members Mike Davis (LA) and Julia Brownley (LA)

-Co-sponsored by Californians Against Waste and LA County

-Also supported by: City and County of San Francisco Department of the Environment, East Bay Municipal Utilities District, Heal the Bay, Marin County Board of Supervisors, Northern California Recycling Association, Sonoma County Waste Management Agency

-Would enact toughest restrictions on single-use bags in country

-Would require retailers to recycle 7 out of every 10 bags handed out by 2011

-If benchmarks are not met, they would be required to charge a 25 cent per-bag fee

Brenan Koerner writes in Slate.com about the affects PVC has on the recycling stream.

The nastiest of those potential contaminants isn't your polypropylene [yogurt container] but rather PVC (aka plastic No. 3). Though it's increasingly rare in the United States due to concerns over dioxin emissions during manufacture, PVC is still prevalent enough to ruin many a load of otherwise recyclable PET. The stuff is the bane of recyclers everywhere: A single PVC bottle can irrevocably contaminate an entire 800-pound load of otherwise desirable PET, rendering it unfit to be made into new products—PVC forms acids when mixed with PET, and those acids can make the recycled plastic unacceptably fragile. Because of this danger, many recycling facilities now employ machines such as FlakeSort, which analyzes the PVC content of processed plastic "flakes" before they're sold on the open market.

Read the Complete Article>>

In addition to ruining batches of PET plastic, PVC also contains toxins such as heavy metals, phthalates and dioxins at a high incidence rate.

CAW and PVC:

• Learn About AB 2505, which would phase out the use of PVC resin in consumer packaging.

Media interest in plastic marine debris pollution has greatly increased in the past few weeks, with local efforts to ban plastics waste receiving international attention.  Yesterday, PBS's award-winning 4-part series "Strange Days on Planet Earth" took a vivid look at the North Pacific Gyre, a bigger-than-Texas patch of litter patch in the Pacific where plastic outweighs plankton. 

Also worthwhile, though a bit sensational (think:plastic bag manufacturers intentionally adding helium to their bags so they can build an island of plastic in the Pacific to develop)--check out this episode of the childrens' program, "Gorilla in the Greenhouse," online.

CAW and Marin Debris:

• Learn about a marine debris bills in the California Legislature this year, including AB 2058, AB 2505, and SB 1625. 

In a reversal, it appears the federal government may be coming closer to recommending the phase out of Bisphenol-A.  A draft of a new study by the National Toxicology Program strengthens the link between the chemical and certain cancers.  The compound is widely used in reusable water bottles.

Read and Article in the Wall Street Journal>>

Read the Study>>