Disposable plastic bags would be banned from grocery checkout stands in California and consumers would pay at least a dime for a paper or a sturdier, reusable plastic bag a under a compromise proposal negotiated by key legislators.

An attempt to pass a bill banning the bags failed last year amid opposition from plastic bag manufacturers and concerns that the move would eliminate jobs.

Senate Bill 270 seeks to temper some plastic industry opposition by providing $2 million from state recycling funds.

Plastic bag makers would be able to apply for grants to retrain their workers or re-engineer their operations to make reusable plastic bags that meet new criteria spelled out in the bill. Despite the sweetener, at least two major plastic bag makers said they will not support the new bill.

The legislation is a joint effort by Sen. Alex Padilla – the Los Angeles Democrat who authored last year’s failed attempt – and two of his colleagues who killed that bill, Sen. Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles, and Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens.

De León and Lara have plastic bag factories in their districts and said last year that Padilla’s SB 405 would have hurt their working-class constituents. But they took heat for their votes from environmentalists who say too many plastic bags litter California streets, foul its beaches and harm wildlife.

“We need to find a way to balance the health of the planet with the preservation of people’s livelihoods,” de León said. “This new bill, I believe, is a strong compromise.”

Padilla, De León and Lara engaged in intense conversations on the Senate floor this week. They plan to introduce their proposal today alongside labor and environmental leaders at the Command Packaging plant in Vernon, a bag maker whose owner is supporting the bill.

Under the proposal, only plastic bags that meet certain thresholds for containing recycled content and being strong enough for more than 125 uses would be available for sale in California. They would have to contain at least 20 percent recycled plastic, a bar that would go up over time to 40 percent, said Mark Murray, executive director of Californians Against Waste.

“We’re trying to develop a criteria for an evolving marketplace,” he said.

Consumers would pay a minimum 10-cent fee for every shopping bag, whether paper or plastic, though Murray said plastic bags that meet the new criteria likely will cost more than that.

He said 90 cities in California already ban plastic grocery bags and require a 10-cent fee for paper. The bill would let existing city regulations remain in place.

“What’s happening in those communities is that we’re seeing a reduction in paper bags,” Murray said. “The 10-cent charge is causing people not just to switch from plastic to paper, but to bring their own bags.”

Grocery stores support the idea of charging for bags; those who make them, however, have a problem with it. Charging the bag fee amounts to a giveaway to the grocery stores, which currently absorb the cost of bagging customers’ purchases, said Catherine Browne, manager of Crown Poly, a bag maker in Huntington Park.

“The money is going to the grocers – it’s going to the grocers on the back of the consumers,” Browne said.

She said she hopes to see changes to the bill that would take the money collected from the bag fees away from the store owners and instead direct it to a “public purpose.”

The bill will face stiff opposition from the nation’s largest plastic bag maker, Hilex Poly, which has contributed more than $115,000 to California politicians since 2011.

“If this bill were to pass, it would be devastating to the 2,000 workers who are participating in the manufacturing of recyclable plastic bags in California,” said Mark Daniels, a senior vice president at Hilex Poly and chairman of an industry association.

He said $2 million is far too little to help manufacturers change their product.

“A $2 million fund to retrain or retool a factory is not at all realistic,” Daniels said.

Padilla said he expects Daniels’ plastic bag association to put up a fight. But he said the changes sweeping across California cities and counties will help build support for a statewide measure.

“I think that it’s a huge help that since last year, literally dozens more cities have adopted ordinances at the local level, either to implement phase-outs of their own or to support the state policy,” Padilla said.

Despite the many local bag bans in California, Daniels said no state in the nation has passed a statewide ban on plastic bags.

“We have had discussions in Washington and Oregon, and both those statehouses have rejected them,” Daniels said.

In other states, he said, “these things don’t even get out of committee.”

De León countered that California is a leader in environmental policy and that the bill isn’t meant to suit the needs of Hilex Poly, which is based in South Carolina.

“We worked tirelessly to make sure that those California – and that’s the key word here – manufacturing facilities will have resources,” he said.

The requirements in the bill would take effect at large grocery stores in July 2015 and at pharmacies and liquor stores in July 2016.

Reprinted from The Sacramento Bee (1/24/2014)

The Press Democrat

With council votes this week, Santa Rosa and Rohnert Park join a growing list of California cities that outlaw plastic carryout bags.

About 100 cities and counties, with a combined population of more than 12 million people, have enacted bag laws. Still more are on the way.

The direction is unmistakable — single-use bags are going the way of leaded fuel and other products that pose environmental hazards or needlessly clog landfills.

Plastic bags do both.

Californians use about 14 billion of them every year, but fewer than 5 percent get recycled. Most bags get tossed in the rubbish or become litter. Plastic bags account for 2 percent of the waste stream and $25 million a year in collection and disposal costs, according to a legislative analysis. Discarded bags are a major source of the plastic polluting the world’s oceans.

From Arcata to Solana Beach, local governments have concluded that the best solution is banning plastic carryout bags.

With this week’s votes, all nine Sonoma County city councils and the Board of Supervisors have enacted ordinances. By Sept. 1, single-use plastic bags will disappear from local supermarkets, convenience stores and many other retailers.

Similar rules already are in effect in Fort Bragg, Ukiah and unincorporated Mendocino County.

But a patchwork of local rules — a possibility locally with Santa Rosa opting out of a countywide approach — is confusing for consumers and a nuisance for retailers. This is a statewide issue, and it ought to be addressed as such.

Bag bills failed in 2010 and 2012. Of the three bills introduced last year, one reached the state Senate floor, where it fell two votes short — with four senators abstaining.

The author, state Sen. Alex Padilla of Los Angeles, says he’ll try again this year. His biggest obstacle may be fellow Democrats worried that a ban would cost jobs in Los Angeles-area bag factories.

That’s probably true, but the numbers peddled by industry lobbyists are overblown. Consider an independent estimate prepared for the Los Angeles City Council before it voted to ban plastic carryout bags. Net job loss in the city: 15. L.A.’s annual expenditure for picking up plastic bags: $2 million.
There are arguments against banning bags. They are convenient, and many are reused as wastebasket liners or to clean up pet waste. Produce bags, restaurant bags and other carryout bags exempted from these laws remain a litter problem.

The primary alternative — reusable bags — can harbor bacteria. Academic researchers found an increase in E. coli infections in San Francisco after carryout bags were banned, and epidemiologists in Oregon traced a norovirus outbreak to a dirty bag. Washing bags is a simple solution, but another study found that 97 percent of people never do.

These problems are comparatively minor and easy to solve. The costs and environmental hazards associated with plastic bags are well known and widely publicized, and recycling is easier than ever. Regrettably, too many people don’t bother.

That’s why cities and counties across the state are banning carryout bags. More nuisance than convenience, they should be banned statewide.

Reprinted from The Press Democrat (1/17/2014)

California Governor Jerry Brown released his 2014 on January 9.

Read the Proposal »

A recent survey by the University of Florida shows consumers rank food safety near the top of their list of concerns, with 85 percent of respondents calling it extremely or highly important, trailing only the economy and health care.

But perhaps more significantly, the survey also found a great deal of confusion — and downright misinformation — about the relative safety of different foods.

For example, the survey found that 72 percent of those polled thought that fresh fruit and vegetables were safe while only about 60 percent felt the same way about canned fruits and vegetables.

In fact, canned and frozen fruits and vegetables are much safer than unwashed raw produce, according to Doug Archer, associate dean for research for UF/IFAS.

“The number of outbreaks of foodborne illness attributable to fresh produce has grown substantially in the last two decades to the point where the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have become very concerned,” Archer said.

Bacteria downgraded

The survey also found more Floridians naming growth hormones, additives and preservatives as health risks than bacteria, when in fact, it is bacteria that can fairly quickly cause major foodborne diseases.

“I think findings like this are telling us that, while there are some areas where there is correspondence between what consumers know and the actual facts, there are some significant gaps,” said Tracy Irani, director of the UF/IFAS Center for Public Issues Education, or PIE Center, which led the study.

The online survey, conducted in October, reached 510 Florida residents, all 18 or older. The responses were weighted to balance geographic, age, gender, race and ethnicity data to ensure the information was representative of Florida’s population.

The study found that Floridians are not as concerned about genetically modified food, with fewer than half saying they worried that it would harm the environment or cause health problems.

But 52 percent approve of using genetic modification to help fight citrus greening, a disease that threatens the state’s $9 billion citrus industry.

Currently the only genetically engineered crops are field corn, soybean, cotton, canola, sugar beet, papaya and squash.

Kevin Folta, interim chair of UF’s horticultural sciences department, said the survey shows the need for more education about the benefits of genetically engineered food.

“There has never been a single case of harm to an animal or human eating an estimated 3 trillion meals in the last 17 years, since genetically engineered food became available in the marketplace,” Folta said. “The survey says that we need to be doing more in communicating the science to the public.”

Reprinted from Consumer Affairs (1/8/2014)

If you’re bracing yourself for a major storm, you’ve likely already made your trip to the grocery store to stock up in case of emergency. But how do you ensure the safety of food in your refrigerator and freezer during a power outage or flood? Below are some tips from the USDA to keep your food safe and your family healthy during a weather emergency.

Preparation:

• Fill Ziplock bags, empty soda bottles, and other plastic containers with water and freeze. Use these to keep items in the freezer, refrigerator, and coolers cold.
• Freeze items in your refrigerator that you do not need immediately such as meat, poultry, milk, and leftovers such as chili and soup. If you loose power, this will buy you some more time by keeping them at a food-safe temperature longer.
• Group items together in the freezer and refrigerator to help keep everything cooler longer. Think “safety in numbers”!
• Have coolers at the ready to be filled with ice packs, frozen items, and refrigerated perishables.
  If you’re preparing for a flood, relocate foods on the bottom shelves of your pantry to higher shelves or cabinets.

If the power goes out:

• Keep refrigerator and freezer doors closed as much as possible.
• The refrigerator will keep food safe for about 4 hours, if it is kept closed. A unopened freezer that is packed full will hold its temperature for 48 hours. If it is only half full, it will keep food safe for 24 hours.
• If the food has visible ice crystals, it is safe to be refrozen or cooked to eat. The same holds true for food that has been kept in a sealed freezer for several days without power. If there are still ice crystals, it is safe.
• The safest way to determine a food’s safety is to use a thermometer. If a food’s temperature registers at 40°F or below, it is safe.
• After 4 hours without power, discard all refrigerated perishables such as meat, poultry, fish, milk, eggs, soft cheeses, etc. NEVER taste an item to see if it’s still good. As the USDA says, “When in doubt, throw it out!”
• Here’s a VERY HANDY chart of foods that are perishable and non-perishable

If your kitchen and pantry is flooded:

• Discard food that is not in a waterproof container and may have come into contact with flood water – this includes food or supplies in cardboard boxes, juice/ milk/baby formula boxes, as well as home canned goods. Anything with a screw-cap, snap lid, pull top, and crimped cap is also not waterproof.
• Canned goods with punctures, swelling, deep dents, or extensive rusting should also be discarded.
• More tips and complete cleaning instructions to sanitize waterproof food containers and kitchen cookware and utensils.

Good luck and stay safe!

Reprinted from Parade (1/2/2014)