The ruling on Wednesday shows one thing. The California state senate doesn’t want the plastic ban. The state had supporters for the ban from Republican Arnold Schwartzenegger, grocers and retailers. There was one group fighting for the ban. This the plastic industry lobbyists. Many people in the world use plastic bags. These are typically for groceries. Billions of plastic bags, struggling to naturally degrade, kill millions of birds and marine animals and have been identified as a human health hazard. Many think the bar in The Golden State on plastic bags shouldn’t go through. This is because consumers shouldn’t have to deal with that burden.
The problem in California with plastic bags
If the bill would have passed, stores in The Golden State would need to stop using plastic bags. The public began noticing plastic hazards making it so the bill came about, says the Silicon Valley Mercury News. According to the environmental group Conserve the Bay, 1 million plastic bags pollute San Francisco Bay each year. State officials said that Californians use 19 billion plastic bags a year. The state spends $25 million a year just to collect these plastic bags. Chevron, Dow and ExxonMobil are all included in a group called the American Chemistry Council. This group thinks there shouldn’t be any kind of change since the state, with an $18 billion spending budget deficit already, will have to pay $1.7 million for it.
Getting state politician votes from business of plastic
The American chemistry Council was very against the plastic bag ban in California. The Miami Herald reports that the group, based upon in Virginia, has changed into a fixture in The Golden State where it funds opposition to environmental bills and anti-plastic city ordinances. The council paid off politicians in the campaign. Also, it paid for TV and radio ads to run. The council has two affiliates that helped with donations that are Hilex Poly So., which is a South Carolina plastic bag manufacturer, and Exxon. Between the three in August, seven state senators got donation checks from the group.
Plastic bag ban: why and why not
The California plastic bag ban was created to encourage shoppers to use reusable totes. Some California cities, including San Francisco, already have such plastic bag laws in place. Changing consumer habits will do better than cleaning up the mess. This is the opinion on assemblywoman Julia Broenley who authored the bill, says NBC News. Republican senator Mimi Walters told ABC News that “If we pass this piece of legislation, we could be sending a message to the people of The Golden State that we care more about banning plastic bags than helping them put food on their table.”
The Great Pacific garbage Patch
In 2008, it was estimated by the EPA that 3.96 million tons of plastic bags were made. About 90 percent of those were tossed. They were just thrown away. According to the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. goes through 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually at an estimated cost to retailers of $4 billion. 10 percent of plastic accumulates within the ocean, says a U.N. study from 2006. The Good Pacific Garbage Patch is what we call the place with probably the most there. The size of the place is about the size of Texas. It also has about 3.5 million tons of trash in it.
Silicon Valley Mercury News
mercurynews.com/ci_15927563?source=most_emailed and nclick_check=1
Miami Herald
miamiherald.com/2010/08/26/1792991/californias-plastic-bag-ban-opponents.html
ABC News
abcnews.go.com/US/california-votes-plastic-bag-ban/story?id=11526792 and page=1
