A Californian law that will come into effect starting with July of 2015 is going to ban single-use plastic bags altogether throughout the entire state. Thus, California will become the first state ever to prohibit the use of plastic bags, including those used to wrap food, medicine and bag groceries at stores. Some exceptions will be made, though, for open food items and plastic used to protect hung-up clothing. This bill comes in an effort to reduce the number of the 13 billion plastic bags per year that California currently uses and thus to reduce land and ocean pollution.
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‘This bill is a step in the right direction. It reduces the torrent of plastic polluting our beaches, parks, and even the vast ocean itself,’ said California’s governor, Jerry Brown, in a statement. However, this opinion is not welcomed by everyone. Although the environmentalists fully support the bill, plastic bag manufacturers, on the other hand, are not as happy about it. The American Progressive Bag Alliance, their trade group, called the new bill not only a bad law but also a scam that will lead to the loss of thousands of jobs. Their hope is to overturn the plastic bag ban law through a referendum. In a move to help manufacturers make the passage to another business, the government has offered to give each plastic bag producer $2 million in loans to enter another market. One possible option for them would be manufacturing paper bags that will be sold in stores for 10 cents a piece.
At whatever end of the new law agreement spectrum one might be, the fact that plastic bags are responsible for killing thousands of marine animals each year and make up for 60 to 80 percent of the ocean debris still stands and, at least in these terms, the bill is a huge step toward reducing ocean pollution and a ‘thrilling win’ for ocean lovers, such as the National Resources Defense Council. Still, the ban is not news for almost a quarter of Californians, which amounts to approximately 10 million residents, that have banned plastic bags where they live.