The Patriot Post® · Plastic Bag Ban in California Not Based on Science

The plastic bag ban in California was spawned out of the assumption that consumers use the bag once to carry their groceries home and then throw the bags into the ocean to choke baby seals. But the reality is, after the bags come home, people reuse plastic bags to line trashcans, carry lunches into work or recycle them. Still, Democrat Gov. Jerry Brown signed S.B. 270 into law, banning plastic shopping bags from the state. Some leftists aren’t happy. Lee Califf, director of the American Progressive Bag Alliance (is that really a thing?), said the law “could serve as a case study for what happens when greedy special interests and bad government collide in the policymaking process. [This] bill was never legislation about the environment. It was a back room deal between the grocers and union bosses to scam California consumers out of billions of dollars without providing any public benefit – all under the guise of environmentalism.” SPI, the trade association for the plastics industry, argued the effect of the ban would do little to improve the environment, as plastic bags make up only 2% of California’s waste, and reusable plastic bags have sanitation and recycling problems. However, since the law for the baby seals, science doesn’t matter but the warm fuzzies do. More…