California Bans Single-Use Plastic Grocery Bags

California Governor Ed Brown signed into law bill SB 270 Tuesday, which enacts the first statewide ban on single-use plastic bags.

"This bill is a step in the right direction – it reduces the torrent of plastic polluting our beaches, parks and even the vast ocean itself,” said Governor Brown. "We’re the first to ban these bags, and we won’t be the last."

The bill will prohibit grocery stores and pharmacies from distributing single-use plastic bags after July 2015 and enacts the same ban for convenience stores and liquor stores the following year.

The bill also provide up to $2 million in competitive loans to businesses transitioning to the manufacture of reusable bags.

SB 270 also allows businesses to charge customers a 10-cent fee to provide reusable or paper bags.

The American Progressive Bag Alliance (APBA), which has been against the bill, called the bill "greedy" and a "back room" deal between policymakers and special interest groups. They said the bill could costs thousands of U.S. manufacturing jobs.

"Senator Padilla's bill was never legislation about the environment," the APBA said. "It was a back room deal between the grocers and union bosses to scam California consumers out of billions of dollars without providing any public benefit – all under the guise of environmentalism. If this law were allowed to go into effect it would jeopardize thousands of California manufacturing jobs, hurt the environment, and fleece consumers for billions so grocery store shareholders and their union partners can line their pockets."

You May Also Be Interested In

• Apple says it will replace iPhone Duo units showing screen problems
• BTIG reiterates neutral rating on Hershey ahead of Q3 results
• Jefferies Names Top European Mid-Cap IT Stocks After the Latest Update