Sen. Alex Padilla’s plastic bag ban bill moves to floor

Environment California

Sacramento, CA – Legislation to ban single-use plastic bags across California took another step toward becoming law. The Senate’s Appropriations Committee voted this morning to approve SB 405, clearing the way for a floor vote by the full Senate. Written by Alex Padilla (Pacoima), the bill would ban single-use plastic checkout bags in grocery, drug, and convenience stores.

“This important step forward shows yet again that we can achieve lasting victories for ocean and environmental health,” said Nathan Weaver with Environment California. “Nothing we use for a few minutes should pollute our ocean for hundreds of years.”

Plastic bags are a direct threat to wildlife—like the Pacific leatherback sea turtle—that mistakes them for food. One in three leatherback sea turtles autopsied since 1968 were found to have plastic in their stomachs, according to research published in 2009. The bags are also one of the four most common garbage items on California’s beaches according to Ocean Conservancy’s annual beach cleanup data. Fifteen percent of all animals Ocean Conservancy found tangled in beach garbage were caught in plastic bags.

More than 70 California local governments have already banned single-use plastic bags. Over seven million Californians, nearly one out of every five people in the state, now live in a community that has approved a plastic bag ban.

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Environment California is a state-based, citizen-funded, environmental advocacy organization working toward a cleaner, greener, healthier future.