Mark Murray

Executive Director, CAW

Assembly Bill 2449 (Levine) will, among other things, establish a 6 year pilot program requiring retailers to takeback and recycle plastic 'carry-out' bags. As part of the legislative agreement to gain adoption of this measure also includes language preventing local governments from enforcing plastic bag fees, recycling, or reporting requirements on 'stores that are in compliance' with the provisions of AB 2449.

Here is what AB 2449 does:

• Requires all large grocery stores and similar retail outlets (i.e. Target, Longs, Rite-aid, Walmart, etc) to establish a visible location and education program at the store for the take-back and recycling of plastic 'carry out' bags.
  
• The AB 2449 take-back requirement will apply to roughly 7000 retail stores in California. Currently, retail chains accounting for just 1740 stores even claim to be accepting plastic bags for recycling.
• Requires that all plastic carry out bags be labeled: 'Please Return to a Participating Store for Recycling.'
  
• Requires retailers to make reusable bags available to consumers.
  

More than 19 billion plastic carry out bags are generated in California annually. At best, the current recycling rates are in the 2-3% range. AB 2449 provides a uniform statewide consumer takeback and recycling option at more than 5000 retail stores in the state. Of the roughly 3700 'supermarkets' in the state, less than 25% even claim to be providing recycling right now—and we know that many individual stores in chains that claim to be participating still are not.

Additionally, by requiring labeling of bags "Return to Store for Recycling," we can hopefully help discourage the well intentioned but costly practice of disposing of plastic bags in curbside recycling programs. According to a recent CIWMB analysis, curbside programs annually get stuck with more than 9000 tons of plastic bags that must be disposed at a cost of more than $1.1 million annually.

As part of the agreement to gain the bill's passage, we (the Author, CAW and other supporters) had to accept language that, for the next 6 years, would prohibit local agencies from implementing a recycling requirement or recycling fees on plastic bags at stores complying with the statewide takeback requirement. The language does not affect any other policy on any other product.

Know that without this agreement, there would be no takeback and recycling requirement. On principle, this was a very difficult pill for all of us to swallow, especially for CAW, which has been on the forefront of efforts to organize local takeback and recycling fees for more than 25 years. While local ordinances on problem products have never been a substantive solution to a waste problem, they do sometimes represent valuable political tool for raising public awareness and leveraging state action.

At the end of the day however, we weighed actually enacting a statewide takeback and recycling measure on several thousand additional stores versus the prospect of organizing and successfully winning adoption of local—largely symbolic—bag-fee ordinances and we concluded that the time for ‘wishful thinking’ had passed. The time for action was upon us.

Over the last 20 years, Californians Against Waste has attempted to move dozens of producer responsibility policies on a range of problem products. In the last three years alone, we have targeted plastic grocery bags three times in the legislature, along with bills targeting take-out food packaging, plastic containers, and cigarette butts. You know the results. These were good, thoughtful policies, with tremendous support from recyclers, local governments, and environmental groups. We’re certainly not ready to give up, but we do have a responsibility to our supporters and our environment to be realistic. A responsibility to take what we can get when we can get it, and move on to other aspects of the problem.

AB 2449 is not perfect, it's not comprehensive, and it shouldn’t be the final word on plastic bag policy. But AB 2449 is a thoughtful and responsible producer responsibility policy targeting the more than 19 billion plastic bags that are generated in California annually. And it’s the best real policy we’ve got.

According to a 2003 California Waste Study, we dispose of 8.36/lbs of plastic carry out bags per person annually. Next year, the CIWMB will be in the field with an update of that study. And they will be back again in 2010.

I also want to say a word about Assembly Member Lloyd Levine's efforts and motivation on this proposal. His passion for this issue is sincere and is derived in part from his experience running along the LA River and finding the trees and landscape covered with plastic bags and other litter. Last fall I began working with Assembly Member Levine and his staff on a legislative proposal to reduce and increase the recycling of plastic grocery bags. Truth be told, Assemblymember Levine first came to us with a proposal to assess a Bottle Bill style refund value of 5 or 10 cents on plastic bags to both discourage use and encourage takeback and recycling. He was right on target with the concept of a producer responsibility solution, but we faced quick and stiff opposition from the California Retailers and California Grocers Associations, along with dozens of individual stores—and this is before a proposal was even in print. Assembly Member Levine faced a choice: look the part of the environmental hero by authoring a bill that would look good on paper, but languish in the Assembly Natural Resources Committee with no chance of passage, or try to reach an agreement with the retailer opposition to accomplish something. CAW believes he made the right choice.

More About Plastic Waste:

• Plastic Litter and Waste Reduction Campaign