New industry group pushes back as California considers bigger bag ban

A proposal moving through the California legislature is putting the future of plastic shopping bags there into sharp focus: Should they be banned entirely, or should they be worked into new recycling programs within the state's EPR system?

Don't miss Steve Toloken talking the latest public policy issues in Plastics in Politics Live.

The legislation, Assembly Bill 2236, would ban polyethylene bags in favor of paper and reusable options. It's gained some support, passing preliminary votes in both the Assembly and state Senate in May.

And that's prompted a new plastics industry coalition, the Responsible Recycling Alliance, to come together to try to put the brakes on that bill and push an alternate plan that the industry says is more sustainable.

RRA and its allies are mounting a public relations and lobbying effort, urging California to drop AB 2236 and instead let a new extended producer responsibility program lawmakers passed in 2022, known as SB 54, start to work.

They say EPR can gradually build a recycling program for plastic bags and thin film packaging.

"We are asking that we be treated as the other products that are under SB 54," said Roxanne Spiekerman, vice president of public affairs for PreZero US and RRA spokesperson. "We would have to prove that the bags are going to be recycled."

But lawmakers and environmentalists on the other side say plastic bag recycling hasn't worked so far and are skeptical it can. A July 1 legislative report on AB 2236 said only 10 percent of plastic bags and film are recycled.

AB 2236 advocates question whether plastic bags could comply with SB 54, which requires a 65 percent recycling rate for packaging by 2032. Instead, they say the state should move on to paper bags and reusable bags.

"Californians are ready to just take paper, which is what this bill does," said Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, D-Orinda, the author of AB 2236. "It will make an incredible difference for our climate and our environment."

Her bill is the latest in 20 years of debate about bag policy in the California legislature and comes after voters passed a statewide referendum in 2016 banning thin film plastic shopping bags.

But disagreements over how well that ban has worked in practice have fueled efforts like Bauer-Kahan's to take another swing at banning plastic bags.

The three companies who formed the RRA — Prezero US, EFS Plastics and Merlin Plastics — argue that AB 2236 won't have the effect supporters want.

They and allies say the paper bags favored by AB 2236 will have a higher environmental impact to manufacture.

As well, they say the bill will lead to a flood of imported, non-recyclable woven and polypropylene bags that will be sold as reusable bags.

And the bill will gut the manufacturing of the 40 percent recycled-content polyethylene bags that are currently sold in California and made in the United States, they say.

In an interview, Spiekerman stressed that the RRA wants to do more than just say no to AB 2236.

"We're not just in opposition to the bills," she said. "Our intent is to say we recognize there's a problem. We want to be part of a sound solution that works from both an environmental perspective and a science perspective."

In the short term, RRA is doing the nuts-and-bolts work typical of political advocacy, like releasing polling that backs its case.

It announced a poll July 1 that said just over half of Californians surveyed were less likely to support AB 2236 when told that the imported polywoven bags can't be recycled or that paper bags have a worse carbon footprint.

The group is also working to get its message out among state legislators.

Spiekerman said RRA has hosted lawmakers and their staffs, along with other stakeholders, to argue that AB 2236 won't reduce the amount of plastic used.

"The education piece of what are the unintended consequences are now starting to surface," she said. "They thought it was going to be an all-out ban on plastic."

Spiekerman said they will continue the advocacy. The legislation has been amended since it passed both chambers in May, and it's continuing to be negotiated as supporters try to win final passage before the end of the legislative session Aug. 31.

"We hope to get another round of legislators out here in August," Spiekerman said.

Beyond the legislation, the group's plans are less defined, but its leaders say they could take on an expanded role in the recycling infrastructure.

Spiekerman said it's possible that "this group grows, and we take more of a voluntary stewardship type position to help reclaim and recycle plastic film."

Spiekerman said RRA envisions the SB 54 EPR system, funded by industry, setting up large collection bins around the state for bags and other film plastics like bread wrappers and dry cleaning bags.

"There is no curbside solution," Spiekerman said. "There's nobody that really wants the plastics bags in the curbside. [Materials recovery facilities] have not evolved to accept the plastic film and wrap and I don't see that in the near future."

"It would be a great solution if it was like Europe, where they separate film and bags," she said. "In the United States we don't have that type of recycling."

In a launch announcement June 27, RRA said plastic bag producers would be paying for recycling infrastructure as part of complying with SB 54, and said that law should be allowed to work.

"It's important to note that plastic film bag producers, as defined by SB 54, are the ones who will pay to fund the plastics collection infrastructure and the system wide improvements necessary to ensure that plastic film is recycled," Spiekerman said.

As well, the group argued that the alternatives pushed by AB 2236 have their own problems: paper bags come with a bigger carbon footprint, and the canvas or non-woven polypropylene reusable bags are not recyclable in the U.S. and have zero post-consumer recycled content.

But skeptics of the plastic bag industry's approach say it's too little, too late.

Mark Murray, executive director of the environmental group Californians Against Waste, said the industry has failed for nearly 20 years to demonstrate recyclability of the bags, despite state laws starting in 2006 that were designed to encourage that.

He said frustration with the pace of the 2006 law led lawmakers to adopt the 2014 statewide ban.

That 2014 ban was initially challenged and put on hold until voters approved it in a 2016 referendum vote.

When it was finally implemented, it included carve-outs to the plastic bag industry that allowed thicker plastic bags, provided they could be reused 125 times, included post-consumer content and could be recyclable in the state, Murray said.

But those 2014 provisions also haven't worked, CAW argues.

"Today, despite a 10-year runway, plastic bag manufacturers have failed to substantively and systematically demonstrate any of those commitments," Murray said. "The thicker plastic bags have failed to be embraced by consumers as a multi-reuse carryout bag."

The legislative analysis for AB 2236 noted skepticism about bag recycling, pointing to an ABC News investigation that found that many plastic bags collected for recycling wound up in landfills or incinerators.

As well, the legislative report said a statewide recycling commission in 2021 questioned recycling claims on bags and asked California Attorney General Rob Bonta to investigate.

The report said many retail stores in California stopped collecting plastic bags for recycling, after a state law requiring them to do so expired in 2020.

"Few stores continue to accept them back for recycling and curbside collection programs generally cannot accommodate film plastics for recycling," the legislative report said. "In December 2023, CalRecycle determined that all plastic film, including the plastic for the 'reusable' thicker plastic bags, was 'not recyclable.'"

Murray said plastic bag makers have "failed to demonstrate a viable, consumer-facing collection and recycling system for PE plastic bags or any plastic film."

He suggested that California's SB 54 EPR law is making the bag industry wish it would have done more after the 2014 ban to build recycling systems for the thicker, recycled content bags that law allows.

"I have no doubt, that with the enactment of SB 54, the producers of plastic bags and film would like to have that decade back and 'this time' really take seriously the commitment to recycle," Murray said. "But that door is closed. With or without the current legislation in California, polyethylene plastic grocery bags are dead in California."