Name: Plastic waste cuts probably headed to California ballot as advocates give up on Legislature
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Plastic waste cuts probably headed to California ballot as advocates give up on Legislature

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This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateSACRAMENTO — After the California Legislature killed bills designed to combat plastic pollution for the second year in a row, environmentalists say they’ve concluded the fight might be unwinnable at the heavily lobbied state Capitol.Instead, they’ve resolved to take the battle to voters, with an initiative aimed at the 2022 ballot.A pair of identical bills, and died with hours left before they adjourned for the year. The bills were designed to phase out some of the most commonly nonrecyclable plastics: flimsy single-use packaging and items such as cups and utensils.Activists say that while legislative infighting didn’t help with a close vote as the session ended, the numbers were never on their side. They note that even though the Legislature is overwhelmingly Democratic, some of the more moderate party members have been intensively courted by the plastics and oil industries, which spent heavily to kill the bills.One manufacturer, Dart Container Corp., has contributed nearly $3 million to California campaigns in the past six years. Several of the largest recipients were Democratic legislators who abstained from the in which the proposals effectively died.Industry groups said the bills would have imposed unrealistic mandates in a time of economic strife. They added that California doesn’t have enough recycling facilities to meet the goal of phasing out single-use plastics.Environmentalists said the defeat shows that even with Democrats holding a two-thirds supermajority in the Legislature, industry can block significant progress on eco-friendly policies. They have vowed to take the fight to voters, through a they hope to qualify for the November 2022 ballot.Geoff Shester, a marine biologist in Monterey and California campaign director for Oceana, an environmental group, said legislative leaders have fallen out of step with Californians when it comes to plastic waste.“Because of the power of special interests, the will of the people has really been subverted,” Shester said.Polling suggests that pollution from plastics has become a pressing concern for many in the state. In a by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, 72% of residents said plastic and marine debris along the coast was a “big problem.”But the bills faced a gantlet of opposition. In addition to millions in campaign contributions, the plastics industry spent heavily to lobby against the proposals.An industry group called spent more than $3.38 million to defeat the bills over the past two years, according to disclosure forms. The group is headed by executives from Novolex, a South Carolina plastics company. A spokesman for the industry lobby did not respond to requests for comment.Kathryn Phillips, director of the Sierra Club California, an environmental group, said the repeat defeat of plastics legislation was the result of a methodical effort on the part of the oil and plastics industries. Plastics manufacturers need oil to make their products, and large oil firms, including Chevron and Exxon Mobil, also lobbied against the bills.Related Stories“The Legislature is moving away from representing Californians’ commitment to a clean environment,” Phillips said. “For oil to survive, for oil to continue being the biggest fish in the pond, they have to get more and more plastics made.”Some progressive legislators also vented frustrations. State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, called the bills’ defeat “mortifying.”“California of all places should be in the lead in transitioning away from plastics, especially single-use plastic,” he said. “Plastics are strangling the planet, they are polluting our oceans and waterways.”Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, and Sen. Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica, carried the bills, which would have imposed benchmarks designed to reduce the amount of plastic that people use once and toss in the trash.Companies would have been required to make all plastic packaging and single-use foodware such as cups, straws and utensils easily recyclable or compostable by 2032. The state would have been required to cut the amount of that plastic waste that goes to landfills by 75% by the same year.After similar measures were defeated last year, Gonzalez and Allen amended them to give manufacturers two additional years to comply. They also added language that would have exempted more small producers, such as farmers who package food on-site.Industry groups said the bills would have imposed unrealistic mandates and hurt industries trying to .They also warned that the bill would give CalRecycle, the state’s recycling agency, too much power to create regulations and could lead to higher costs for consumers on products that come wrapped in plastic, from online purchases to restaurant takeout.Adam Regele, a lobbyist for the California Chamber of Commerce, a chief opponent of the bill, said its authors ignored the “elephant in the room”: Many communities don’t have the infrastructure to handle an influx of recyclables.About Our NewsroomThe after China and other overseas markets, which used to buy America’s plastic trash by the shipload, halted shipments in recent years. They said the plastic waste was too contaminated and often wound up polluting their own countries.As a result, U.S. cities have seen their trash costs soar, and tons of plastics tossed in recycling bins now wind up in landfills every year.Michael Westerfield, director of recycling for Dart Container, the company that has contributed heavily to California candidates, said the firm was concerned the bills wouldn’t fix a flawed recycling system.“This is why we offered amendments to address these shortfalls, but ultimately these were not addressed,” he said in a statement.The company has made contributions to dozens of lawmakers, including several who helped derail the bill. San Jose Assemblyman Evan Low, who did not vote on the measure as time ran out on the Legislature’s session, received the most of any lawmaker, with $46,200 in contributions from the company since 2014.Low did not respond to requests for comment. The contributions included $22,500 that went to his ballot measure committee, a that allows legislators to raise more than individual limits.Allen, the Senate co-author, said many factors likely played a role in the death of the measures, but one takeaway is clear: Environmentalists will unite behind the 2022 ballot initiative, which would be more restrictive on plastic producers.“The inability of the Legislature to take action on this issue demonstrates the need for a different approach,” Allen said. “We will be hearing from the public.”Dustin Gardiner is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: Twitter:About Our Newsroom

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateSACRAMENTO — After the California Legislature killed bills designed to combat plastic pollution for the second year in a row, environmentalists say they’ve concluded the fight might be unwinnable at the heavily lobbied state Capitol.Instead, they’ve resolved to take the battle to voters, with an initiative aimed at the 2022 ballot.A pair of identical bills, and died with hours left before they adjourned for the year. The bills were designed to phase out some of the most commonly nonrecyclable plastics: flimsy single-use packaging...

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Dustin Gardiner

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Plastic waste cuts probably headed to California ballot as advocates give up on Legislature

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