The law requires single-use plastic packaging and tableware to be recyclable or compostable by 2032. Also, sales of plastic packaging must be reduced by 25% and 65% of all single-use plastic packaging recycled by 2032. And it is establishing an accountability group that will include industry representatives to run a new recycling program that will be overseen by the state.
“Our children deserve a future free of plastic waste and all of its harmful effects, from clogging our oceans to killing animals – which pollute the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat” , Democrat Newsom said in a statement. “No longer.”
Stakeholders negotiated the language surrounding the law, trying to draft a law that would significantly reduce plastic production, speed up recycling and composting, and shift the burden of plastic pollution onto industry.
Newsom signed the law into law just as the US Supreme Court ruled that the federal Air Pollution Control Act does not give the Environmental Protection Agency broad power to regulate emissions from planet-warming power plants. The statement drew sharp criticism from environmentalists and scientists, who are warning that the world is running out of time to get the climate crisis under control. Plastics are responsible for at least 232 million tons of emissions that warm the planet each year, according to a report released last year. This roughly corresponds to the average emissions of 116 coal-fired power plants.
“Remember, there are greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production of plastic, but these facilities also emit tremendous amounts of airborne pollutants and particulate matter,” Judith Enck, a former regional administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency and now president of Beyond Plastics, told CNN. “It’s really a health threat.”
Plastics also exacerbate environmental injustice. As industry expands, refineries and manufacturing plants tend to settle in largely marginalized communities of color. According to the report, more than 90% of climate pollution from the plastics industry occurs in 18 communities along the Gulf Coast, which are mostly populated by low-income residents and people of color.
“California does not tolerate plastic waste filling our waterways and making it difficult to breathe,” Newsom said. “We hold polluters accountable and cut plastic at source.”
Ocean Conservancy, one of the nonprofits involved in devising the language of the bill, estimates that the newly passed law alone could eliminate 23 million tons of plastic waste over the next decade — about 26 times the weight of the Golden Gate Bridge .
“It’s hard to grasp how significant this feels,” said Anja Brandon, US plastics policy analyst at Ocean Conservancy and one of the main contributors to the legislation’s text, in a statement. “We cannot solve this problem without US leadership, and by passing this law, California is putting the ship back on track. This is a great win for our ocean.”
While the new law is a clear win for the climate, environment and communities around plastics plants, plastics industry leaders are not supporting it.
“The Plastics Industry Association is disappointed that we are ultimately unable to support the version of Senate Bill 54 signed today,” said Matt Seaholm, president and CEO of the Plastics Industry Association, in a statement. “The plastics industry remains committed to a final compromise bill that we could get through to support a circular approach to plastic waste elimination, which unfortunately we are not achieving with this bill.”
A key measure of the law provides that beginning in 2027, plastics manufacturers will pay the state $500 million annually for ten years, which will go into the California Plastic Pollution Mitigation Fund. The fund should then be dedicated to “reducing the environmental impact of plastic,” according to the law.
While the new California law puts a special emphasis on recycling, environmental experts are raising alarms about the ineffectiveness of plastic recycling. California, for example, has fallen short of the statewide goal of recycling 75% of its waste by 2020. Of the 77.4 million tons of waste generated in the state in 2020, about 42% was recycled or diverted and reclaimed, according to a report by California’s Department of Resources Recycling. In 2021, Americans recycled only about 5% of their plastic waste, down from a peak of 9.5% in 2014.
“During this time of extreme polarization in our country, California has shown that we can pass strong environmental legislation with bipartisan support that brings the environmental and business communities together,” California Senator Ben Allen, author of the law, said in a statement. “With this new law, California continues its tradition of global environmental leadership.”