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Plastics industry groups form united front on California bag issues

SACRAMENTO, CALIF. (May 22, 2:45 p.m. ET) -- The plastic bag sector is fighting simultaneous battles in California: at the capitol in Sacramento, in courtrooms across the state and at the grass-roots level.

A coalition of plastics industry organizations, including the California Film Extruders and Converters Association, the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc., the American Chemistry Council and SaveThePlasticBag.com, are working to sway public opinion in a state where communities and the Legislature have proposed a variety of bag bans and taxes.

Kevin Kelly drew a line between what he considers reasonable fees on plastics bags — 1-2 cents — and the 25 cent fee in certain pending California legislation.

Kelly is vice president of Rolling Hills, Calif.-based CFECA, chairman of its legislative committee and, in his day job, CEO of Emerald Packaging Inc. of Union City, Calif.

“I think we have another year of fights on our hands in Sacramento, and the [industry] coalition of plastic organizations — SPI, ACC and CFECA — is working to defeat certain bills and support others,” Kelly said. SPI is based in Washington and ACC is in Arlington, Va.

“None of the trade associations is being obstinate,” Kelly said. “We all want to deal with the litter issue and recycling.”

Assembly Bills 68 and 87, now pending in the chamber's appropriations committee, call for a 25 cent bag-pollution cleanup fee on any type of single-use carryout bag, starting in July 2010. Democrat Assembly members authored the bills: Julia Brownley of Woodland Hills for AB 68 and Mike Davis of Los Angeles for AB 87. The Assembly's natural resources committee approved each bill on 6-3 votes April 13.

Meanwhile, backers of a California-focused group, SaveThe¬PlasticBag.com, are hoping to make their case through a pending, state-funded environmental assessment.

At an April 23 meeting in Sacramento, members of the Oakland-based California Ocean Protection Council moved to authorize spending up to $60,000 for a master environment assessment to determine impacts related to regulation of single-use bags — plastic and paper — and reusable bags.

OPC expects to file a peer-reviewed final report before April.

“All of the individuals involved in the [SaveThePlasticBag] coalition have a desire to stop the misinformation campaign about plastics and plastic bags,” said Stephen Joseph, lawyer and manager for the San Francisco-based organization. “We desperately want an environmental impact report in which the [findings] must be based on substantial evidence.”

Joseph promised litigation if his group determines that the content in the upcoming assessment is unfounded, unproven and lacking in or misrepresenting facts.

“We will hold their feet to the fire [and] make sure all topics are properly addressed,” he said.

In February, the coalition won a lawsuit against Manhattan Beach, Calif., which is appealing the decision. “They took action without an environmental impact report,” Joseph noted.

The coalition filed suit recently against Palo Alto and has litigation pending against Los Angeles County.

Members of the group include manufacturers, distributors and individuals, Joseph said. The coalition has “a large number of members,” but he withheld the specific numbers.

Nationwide, plastic bag manufacturers employ about 4,200, and their production accounts for about 85 percent of the plastic bags consumed in the U.S. market, according to Joseph.

Opponents “are trying to put the whole industry out of business,” Joseph said. “They don't care” about facts or truth, he said.

California-based plastic bag makers Crown Poly Inc. of Huntington Beach, Command Packaging of Vernon and Elkay Plastics Co. Inc. of Commerce founded the coalition, which launched its information campaign in June 2008.

Joseph noted that the coalition is challenging environmentalists on whether their statements about plastic bags are factual.

“After a year, there is a lot less focus exclusively on plastics, as the debate now includes the environmental impact of paper and reusable bags. The environmentalists have become less brazen” in claims about pollution, he said.

Assessing fees on plastics bags is both ineffective and a non-viable option. Assessing fee on plastic bags unlike glass/plastic bottles - is not viable. In the case of bottles, the physical bottles are used for mostly water and/or soft drinks - making them easy to track and recycle. Plastic Bags, on the other hand are general purpose packaging and near impossible to re-use and/or recycle. In the early days, people used to save the plastic grocery bags for re-use.. It became evident that these bags are the most unsanitary for re-use since, you don't know what had been packed in that .. a vegetable... chicken gizzards... soap... bleach etc., Saving grocery bags for re-use is both unhealthy and outright dangerous...., Philosophically, any fee associated with preventing a citizen from what one "wants to do" versus what government "does not want one to do" always involves "money" the universal means of trading. The amount of so called punishment in principle is to discourage people from committing the act. However, in terms of dollars it can be looked at in two ways: (1) a revenue for the government to support the function and/or (2) a license fee to pollute. People in general would never stop to pick up a penny on the street - because, it is not worth their time and energy - however, if it is a nickel, may be... or if it is quarter.. 90% of the people will take time to pick up. Either way, any fee of this nature becomes a trade-off in people's minds. A better way to address the plastic bag issue is to focus on "Intended Use". If the intended use is only few short seconds (like picking up a coke from a 7-11 and looking for place to dispose off the bag as soon as possible) versus using it to carry goods - both the plastics manufacturers and the bag makers can win - just by educating the customers on "intended use" concept. Advertising on the bags - a general Green public message indicating - Please avoid usage of bags unnecessarily. This will in turn reduce some consumption, promote good environmentally conscious message and public relations - and may in fact increase/encourage plastics usage. Overall, plastics recycling will only succeed when public, government, resin and bag manufacturers compromise and work together for a common goal..., Sustainability

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