You have to hand it to the California legislature: there is no idea, no matter how crazy, they won’t try if it fits their radical/progressive agenda.
And when the results they expect don’t pan out, they scratch their progressive heads and try, try again.
Example A: in 2014, the California Assembly passed sweeping legislation that banned single-use plastic bags. Their goal was to eliminate, or at least greatly reduce, the amount of discarded plastic used by consumers.
As a result of this new legislation, plastic bag manufacturers began producing and selling thicker plastic bags, designed to be use more than once by consumers.
Imagine lawmakers surprise when they found out that after the plastic bag ban took effect, Californians “are tossing more pounds of plastic bags than before the legislation was passed.” This is likely due to the stronger, thicker plastic used in the new bags and widely favored by consumers to lug their food home.
The unintended consequences of banning plastic led to the use of, well, more plastic.
Needless to say, the California Assembly is back at work, attempting to craft new legislation to curb the use of plastic bags. Again.
Check this story from The Associated Press below:
California bill would ban all plastic shopping bags at grocery stores
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California would ban all plastic shopping bags in 2026 under a new bill announced Thursday in the state Legislature.
California already bans thin plastic shopping bags at grocery stores and other shops, but shoppers at checkout can purchase bags made with a thicker plastic that purportedly makes them reusable and recyclable.
Democratic state Sen. Catherine Blakespear said people are not reusing or recycling those bags. She points to a state study that found the amount of plastic shopping bags trashed per person grew from 8 pounds per year in 2004 to 11 pounds per year in 2021.
“It shows that the plastic bag ban that we passed in this state in 2014 did not reduce the overall use of plastic. It actually resulted in a substantial increase in plastic,” Blakespear, a Democrat from Encinitas, said Thursday. “We are literally choking our planet with plastic waste.”
Twelve states, including California, already have some type of statewide plastic bag ban in place, according to the environmental advocacy group Environment America Research & Policy Center. Hundreds of cities across 28 states also have their own plastic bag bans in place.
The California Legislature passed its statewide ban on plastic bags in 2014. The law was later affirmed by voters in a 2016 referendum.
If the Legislature passes this bill, it would be up to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom to decide whether to sign it into law. As San Francisco’s mayor in 2007, Newsom signed the nation’s first plastic bag ban.
