Apr 25 â€" Plastic Bag Legislation Passes its First Committee

AB 2449, authored by Assembly Member Lloyd Levine, secured the votes yesterday to pass through the Assembly Natural Resources Committee, much to the happiness of (most of) those attending.

The bill, which originally declared the legislature's intent to do something about bags, now skips the declaration and is moving on to the "do"ing. Recently amended, the bill now requires large grocery stores to create an in-store recycling program for plastic bags, to sell reusable bags if they sell disposable ones, and have printing on the bags asking customers to return them to the stores. The sale of reusable bags is a good start to reducing the amount of plastic initially generated, though CAW would like to add on a public education element that encourages using bags brought from home.

The Bill will now move on to the Assembly Appropriations Committee. If you want to help the bill, send a letter on behalf of AB 2449, and don’t forget to use your reusable bag next time you shop!

(Don’t have a reusable bag? A good place to start would be the reusable bags site; GreenSak and Earthwise bags are also two names that have been popping up. Still, if you want something different, just look around or contact us â€" there are plenty of alternatives to the current, wasteful, one-time-use varieties. Organic natural fiber bags are what we would recommend as the best alternative, but most reusable bags are a step above disposable ones…)

Lanh Nguyen