Editorial Board
San Jose Mercury News
November 3, 2016

The two plastic bags propositions on the California ballot were confusing enough for voters before misleading advertisements started flooding the airwaves. Ignore them.

Here is all you need to know:

Proposition 67 upholds the statewide ban on one-time plastic bag use that the Legislature passed. Vote “yes.” Plastic bags are awful for wildlife and the environment, and California state, county and local governments spend an estimated $400 million — roughly $10 per resident — every year trying to clean them up.

Proposition 65 would require proceeds of grocery store sales of paper bags to go to a wildlife fund. It sounds attractive, but there are sound reasons why even environmental groups are united in opposing Prop. 65. Vote “no.”

First, on the ban itself — California voters need to know that 98 percent of the millions of dollars spent on advertising against the plastic bag ban comes from out-of-state manufacturers. The biggest contribution of $2.7 million comes from Hilex Plastics of South Carolina. Two Texas manufacturers and a New Jersey bag maker have tossed in about $1 million apiece to promote their misleading campaign.

Small wonder. Every Californian, on average, uses about 400 plastic bags a year, reportedly creating a $1 million a month profit for plastic bag manufacturers. They’re desperate to kill the proposed ban before it spreads to other states.

The industry is arguing that a ban won’t reduce waste or litter. Now that’s garbage.

San Jose banned plastic bags in 2012 and reports 59 percent fewer plastic bags on city streets and a 60 percent reduction in its creeks. For a city with budget challenges, the cost savings for cleanups, including clearing clogged storm drains, is substantial.

Hate litter on freeways and rural roads? Don’t we all. Take a look sometime at what’s there. Those white bags are easy to pick out even on the rare occasion traffic is moving at the speed limit.

Meanwhile, volunteers picked up 1.3 million plastic bags on just one recent Coastal Cleanup Day. The damage those bags wreak is heartbreaking. Plastic accounts for 60-80 percent of all marine debris and harms and kills wildlife in devastating numbers.

Gov. Jerry Brown acknowledged that destruction when he signed a 2014 law banning plastic bags statewide. But the plastic bag manufacturers collected enough signatures to put Propositions 67 and 65 on the 2016 ballot, delaying implementation of the law.

Their motive for Prop. 65 is just craven. It is, as we’ve said before, one of the most disingenuous ballot measures in state history. And in California, that’s saying something.

The plastic bag industry targets the bag ban’s provision that grocers can charge 10 cents for each paper bag when shoppers don’t bring their reusable bags. The industry says that’s a “special interest giveaway,” and the money should go to a special wildlife fund. Here’s why that’s wrong.

Sen. Kevin de Leon led the effort to enact a statewide ban, and he included the provision so grocery stores would be able to recoup the expense of providing paper bags. Profits from those bags are negligible.

Wildlife supporters obviously agree. The Sierra Club, The Nature Conservancy, Save Our Shores, the Surfrider Foundation and a host of other environmental groups strongly oppose Prop. 65. Grocery stores have supported the bag ban partly because they wouldn’t lose money on the deal. To their credit, they still support the ban, which makes the plastics industry plot all the more disgusting.

Don’t let out-of-state plastic bag manufacturers stop California from ridding itself of billions of bags that clog our drains, fill our landfills and pollute our waterways.

Vote “yes” on Prop. 67 and “no” on Prop. 65.

Read Editorial here.

Reprinted from the San Diego Union-Tribune (7/19/16)

City is 150th municipality in California to eliminate single-use plastic bags in certain stores, food retailers

The San Diego City Council on Tuesday voted 6-3 to ban single-use plastic bags at large grocery stores, pharmacies and corner markets — becoming one of the last major cities in California to limit the disposable products.

“Citizen across the state have demonstrated the ability to transition to more sustainable, reusable bags, and I’m confident that the citizens of San Diego will quickly adopt this beneficial practice,” City Council President Sherri Lightner said during the council’s afternoon meeting.

“I strongly believe that now is the time to demonstrate local leadership on this issue and make a clear statement that we value our environment,” she added.

Mayor Kevin Faulconer said he plans to sign the ordinance, which would make San Diego the 150th municipality in California with a ban on plastic checkout bags, which often end up in landfills or as litter in storm drains, rivers, canyons and beaches.

Councilmen Mark Kersey, Scott Sherman and Chris Cate voted in opposition, citing broad concerns about local government overreach.

“All this trash, all this litter was put there by somebody or carelessly left behind because they were too lazy to haul this stuff home,” Sherman said at the meeting. “We need to start dealing with those laws that are on the books, the littering, the dumping, and making those fines and those penalties so people think twice.”

A second reading of the ordinance is expected within a few weeks. Once finalized, the rules would give large food stores about six months to comply and approximately a year for smaller drug and convenience stores.

The proposed ban drew wide support from the audience in council chambers Tuesday, which included advocacy organizations such as the Surfrider Foundation’s San Diego County chapter and San Diego Coastkeeper to business-minded groups such as the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Equinox Project.

“The vast majority of plastic bags we see are entangled in the brushes next to our rivers and streams,” said Kristin Kuhn, community engagement manager for Coastkeeper. “After every rain event, these bags clog and choke our city’s already damaged waterways.”

The stated goal of the new ordinance is to encourage shoppers to bring their own reusable sacks in order to decrease the roughly 700 million plastic checkout bags distributed locally every year. Only 3 percent of those bags are recycled, according to the city.

Like most plastic-bag bans in the state, San Diego’s policy requires grocery stores and other food retailers to charge at least 10 cents for each paper bag or for a sturdier reusable bag, which often costs considerably more.

“Stakeholders have worked tirelessly with local jurisdictions throughout the state to find a solution that makes sense for both the environment and businesses,” Sophie Barnhorst, policy coordinator for the chamber of commerce, said at the council meeting. “A ban on plastic and a charge for paper has the potential to achieve maximal environment gain with minimal business disruption.”

The city’s policy comes a few months ahead of a referendum vote in this fall’s general election on whether to uphold a statewide prohibition on single-use checkout bags.

After California in 2014 passed the nation’s only statewide ban on such products, the plastics industry launched a signature drive to overturn the law, criticizing it as a tax on shoppers and an ineffective way to fight pollution.

The American Progressive Bag Alliance has raised more than $6.4 million — funded largely by out-of-state bag manufacturers — to overturn the statewide ban in November. If that ban is voided, the municipal ones — including San Diego’s — would remain in place.

“Like other local bag ordinances in California, this law will do nothing to benefit the environment or residents while letting grocers make millions annually in new bag fees,” said Lee Califf, executive director of the bag alliance.

Bag manufacturers also have spearheaded another ballot measure this fall that would require stores to redirect money from bag sales to a fund administered by the Wildlife Conservation Board. The bag fees are estimated to bring in tens of millions of dollars annually, according to the Independent Legislative Analyst’s Office.

“While San Diego residents should have been given the opportunity to vote to repeal the bag ban, they will still be able to vote in November to allow their local government to redirect bag fees to the environment,” Califf said.

Supporters of eliminating single-use plastic bags see the San Diego council’s vote as a boon for the campaign to uphold the statewide ban.

“Polling has shown that people already living under a ban are more likely to support the statewide effort because they realize that it’s not that big of a deal,” said Genevieve Abedon, waste prevention campaign coordinator with Californians Against Waste, which is part of a coalition that has raised about $1.6 million to defeat the overturn referendum.

San Diego officials said based on statistics from the county of Los Angeles, which adopted its ban in 2010, customers will eventually bring their own reusable bags for about 65 percent of purchases at grocery stores and other retailers — eliminating about 95 percent of all single-use plastic bags distributed in the city.

San Diego stores subject to the new ordinance could be forced to pay up to $2,500 for each day they’re not in compliance. In addition, they would have to track for three years the number of paper bags they provide to customers each month and provide that data to the city upon request.

The city’s ban doesn’t extend to smaller disposable bags used for meat, produce and other loose perishable items. Restaurants and department stores also aren’t covered by the measure.

In anticipation of the ordinance, San Diego has distributed about 40,000 reusable shopping bags, focusing on low-income neighborhoods, food banks, schools and libraries, according to city officials.

San Diego’s ban requires that paper bags be provided for free to customers who are receiving government food assistance, including through the California Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants and Children.

In this region, Solana Beach, Encinitas and Del Mar had passed similar bans. Oceanside is poised to vote on such a measure as early as next month.

About 40 percent of Californians now live in areas with some type of restriction on plastic bags, including Long Beach, San Jose, Sacramento and Oakland, as well as San Francisco, the city that led the push against single-use bags in 2007.

Last year, Huntington Beach became the only city in the state so far to repeal a plastic-bag ban — after its elected leaders and many residents expressed concerns over government overreach.