by Katy Grimes, E&E Legal Senior Media Fellow and California Globe Editor
As Appearing in the California Globe
Enforcing litter laws would go much further to helping the environment
Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. We hear this daily and see those orders nearly everywhere. Paper or plastic? Separate out your wet garbage and put it in another recyclable food bin. Separate bottles and cans. Compost.
Yet none of this has reduced landfills. And recyclers in California are going broke. According to CalRecycle, statewide recycling rate dropped significantly from 2020.
CalRecycle reports legislation signed by Gov. Newsom requires all packaging be recyclable or compostable by 2032, with 65% of it recycled by 2032, shifting the burden from the consumer to the packaging producer. Expect prices to go up – again.
And now comes more legislation to ban plastic bags. But banning plastic grocery bags does not reduce disposal and recycling costs, studies over the last 9 years have shown.
One would think that policymakers and legislators might have figured out by now that consumers will decide on which kind of shopping bag to use, if any, for their purchases. Instead, bag tax pushers from coast to coast want government to decide what, how and when shopping bags can be used – or not at all.
