California Attorney General Rob Bonta has demanded that seven manufacturers of plastic bags prove their products are recyclable in the state, or potentially face millions of dollars in fines or an injunction against selling them in the state.
At a Nov. 2 news conference in San Francisco, Bonta said the state sent letters to Novolex, Revolution, Inteplast, Advance Polybag, Metro Polybag, Travelway and Papier-Mettler asking them to prove their products are recyclable, as state law requires.
"Most Californians are under the impression that plastic bags are recyclable," Bonta said. "It's a logical conclusion: California has banned single-use plastics, and we see the 'chasing arrows' symbol or 100 percent recyclable printed on most every bag we get from the grocery store. But astonishingly, there's a good chance that most, if not all, these bags are not actually recyclable in California."
Bonta said the companies have two weeks, until Nov. 16, to submit proof of their claims.
Hartsville, S.C.-based Novolex said in a brief statement that it is reviewing Bonta's letter.
"Novolex is committed to complying with all state laws and regulations and is proud to operate three facilities in California, employing several hundred people in the state," Phil Rozenski, vice president for public affairs, said. "We are committed to working with ... Bonta's office and the California government towards a sustainable future."
Other companies and the American Recyclable Plastic Bag Alliance, which represents the industry, did not have an immediate response when asked to comment.
At the news conference, Bonta said the state's 2014 law banning thin retail plastics bags required that reusable plastic bags, sold for 10 cents each, that are allowed as replacements have to be recyclable.
But he said the state's curbside recycling systems cannot process the bags and including them in curbside bins can damage equipment at recycling processing plants.
"The vast majority of curbside recycling programs do not have the infrastructure or markets to reliably recycle plastic bags in California," he said. "Instead, the placement of these bags in your home's recycling bins interferes with the processing of actual recyclable waste, shutting down recycling equipment and increasing the risk of worker injury."
He said if his office does not think the manufacturers have proven that their bags are recyclable, it can take other action.
"If we don't get such evidence proving recyclability in California, we can file a complaint [that] can have relief in multiple forms," he said. "Two major forms would be an injunction preventing the illegal production of plastic bags to be used in California, contrary to law."
"There's also under the law the possibility of bringing civil penalties," he said. "Generally, they are thousands of dollars per violation. And we believe that based on, if there are violations here and the evidence is not brought forward to show that the plastic bags are recyclable in California, it's in the multi-millions of dollars."
Bonta said he is open to being persuaded that the bags can be recycled.
"We don't think that the bags produced by these seven manufacturers are being recycled in California or are recyclable in California," he said. "But we are open to evidence and interested in it."
Recyclability marketing is a hot topic in California.
The state Legislature last year passed a first-in-the-nation law, known as SB-343, that puts much tighter limits on recyclability marketing claims for packaging in the state.
The law does not take effect until 2025, but it will require that 60 percent of the state's community recycling programs can process a material for it to carry recyclability labeling like a chasing arrows symbol.
Bonta's announcement comes about a year after a state government recycling commission wrote him asking for an investigation into recyclability claims on plastic bags and films.
The California Statewide Commission on Recycling Markets and Curbside Recycling in December sent the attorney general a detailed letter with what it said were dozens of illegal environmental marketing claims on plastic bags and film, naming specific companies and retailers.
The commission said claims about recyclability, including using versions of the popular chasing arrows symbol, confuse consumers and make them think, incorrectly, that the flexible plastic materials can be recycled in regular curbside bins. It wanted the state to require those labels to be removed.
The challenge to the seven bag makers comes after Bonta in April announced a much larger and potentially more long-term investigation of plastics environmental issues.
His office announced it had subpoenaed ExxonMobil Chemical Co. as the first step into looking at whether the plastics industry has, for several decades, exaggerated claims that recycling was an effective solution to environmental problems from plastic packaging.