Stores must provide a reusable grocery bag or recycled paper bag free of charge to customers using one of these payment methods. Under Senate Bill 270, all Californians will no longer receive single-use plastic bags at grocery stores, drugstores and convenience stores. From now on, bag manufacturers can self-certify to the state that their bags can be recycled. However, Bonta said that a comprehensive system is required to collect, process and sell used bags, which does not exist.
Putting the bags in most curbside recycling bins interferes with the recycling of other products by clogging equipment and increasing the risk of injury to workers, he said. Allen also introduced a bill that would return the requirement for stores to keep records describing what happens to the plastic bags they collect for recycling. Other states, such as New York, New Jersey and Oregon, have followed California in banning single-use plastic bags. Of the 46 trackers deployed across the country, four ended up in facilities that claim to recycle plastic bags.
California stores used to be required to keep records describing the collection, transportation and recycling of plastic bags. Bags became a target of the legislation, Murray said, because they exemplified everything related to the proliferation of unnecessary plastic. The charge also offsets the costs of distributing paper bags in stores, which can be two or more times more expensive than plastic bags. However, it's still true that, to comply with state law, HDPE plastic bags must be recyclable in the state of California.
Many municipal workers say that plastic bags have to be removed manually from machinery at regular recycling centers and then end up in a landfill. Each year, more than 30 billion of these single-use plastic takeaway bags were distributed in California. The law faced considerable difficulties, including a multi-million dollar lobbying campaign by plastic bag manufacturers. The thin plastic bags that used to cover all the garbage cans and sandboxes in California bathrooms were and are made of low-density polyethylene or LDPE.
He said that if a reform is introduced, he would like it to address all plastic bags from all types of retailers, not just grocery stores. It's not clear if any of these facilities currently receive used plastic bags for recycling, or if they would recycle them if they recycled them if they recycled them. He is the executive director of Plastic Beach, a nonprofit organization that connects small businesses with commercial recyclers to facilitate the recycling of pallet wrappers and other pre-consumed plastic containers.
