California Assembly Committee Considers Plastic Bag Legislation

The California Assembly Natural Resources Committee is considering two bills that involve plastic shopping bags at its April 14 meeting.

According to an article in The Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.), the committee is considering a bill that would authorize fees of 15 cents or 25 cents per bag to discourage their use at supermarkets and large drug stores.

Assemblyman Lloyd Levin (D-Sherman Oaks) has introduced a bill that would require stores to reduce their use of plastic bags by 35 percent by the end of 2010 and by 70 percent by the end of 2012 or charge customers 15 cents per bag.

Assemblyman Mike Davis (D-Los Angeles) has introduced a bill that would impose a 25-cent-per-bag fee on plastic shopping bags starting July 1, 2009. Stores could keep 3 percent of the fee to fund the costs of collecting the bags, according to The Mercury News, with the remainder going to a state fund for local programs to reduce plastic bag use and to fight litter created by plastic bags.

The laws are follow-up measures to a program that began in July of 2007 that requires supermarkets and pharmacy superstores to start recycling plastic bags and selling reusable bags.

This legislation has helped to boost the plastic bag recycling rate from 2 percent to 4 percent, Mark Murray, executive director of Californians Against Waste, tells the paper.

William Dombrowski, president of the California Retailers Association, says the current program needs more time to work before legislators consider fees to discourage the use of plastic bags, The Mercury News reports.