FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Dave Heylen, V.P. Communications California Grocers Association
Tel: 916.448.3545
Fax: 916.448.2793
E-mail: [email protected]
California Grocers Association
1415 L Street, Suite 450
Sacramento, CA 95814
Beverage Recycling Tops List of Industry Concerns.
SACRAMENTO, CA (December 18, 2009) –California’s grocery industry leaders recently met in Sacramento to set an ambitious legislative policy agenda for 2010.
The California Grocers Association’s Government Relations Committee discussed issues ranging from food safety to Green Chemistry implementation to regulation of single-use carryout bags on both the State and local levels.
“The meeting was an opportunity for CGA member companies to help our government relations team set priorities for the coming year,” noted CGA President and CEO Ron Fong. “Despite the difficult economic climate, lawmakers in Sacramento and in local jurisdictions up and down the state continue to forward additional regulatory proposals.”
The committee unanimously determined that resolving California’s Beverage Container Recycling Program crisis should be the grocery industry’s top priority. Without quick action by lawmakers, the program faces collapse in the coming months. The Association plans to be aggressively proactive in developing an effective solution, including CGA-sponsored legislation to address specific program components particularly difficult for grocers.
In addition, the committee backed a proposal to help update a state law that established a mandatory recycling program for plastic single-use carryout bags at large grocery stores. The program contains limits on local bag regulations that in hindsight have damaged efforts to shift consumers from single-use bags to reusable bags.
On the local level, CGA will dedicate significant time to working with jurisdictions seeking to regulate prepared food packaging, and encourage grocery store development in urban centers. Several barriers exist to such development including parcel sizes, zoning restrictions and transportation issues.
“CGA is poised to pursue an agenda that is unprecedented in the organization’s history,” added Fong. “Historically our association has not been aggressively pro-active. But that is going to change in 2010.”
The California Grocers Association is a non-profit, statewide trade association representing the food industry since 1898. CGA represents approximately 400 retail members operating over 6,000 food stores in California and Nevada, and approximately 200 grocery supplier companies.