California passes first sweeping US law to reduce single-use plastic

theguardian.com:

California has passed an ambitious law to significantly reduce single-use plastics, becoming the first state in the US to approve such sweeping restrictions.

Under the new law, which California governor Gavin Newsom signed Thursday afternoon, the state will have to ensure a 25% drop in single-use plastic by 2032. It also requires that at least 30% of plastic items sold or bought in California are recyclable by 2028, and establishes a plastic pollution mitigation fund.

“It’s time for California to lead the nation and world in curbing the plastic crisis. Our planet cannot wait,” said Ben Allen, the state senator who introduced the legislation.

The passage of the bill came just before a deadline to remove an initiative aimed at reducing single-use plastics from the November ballot.

Negotiations on the bill have been under way for six months with a team working to craft a proposal that ensured the economic responsibility fell to plastic producers and used language that satisfied the demands of all involved from those in the industry to environmentalists, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The law will establish a producer responsibility organization, comprised of industry representatives, to run a recycling program overseen by the state. The organization will also be responsible for $500m a year in support for a new plastic pollution mitigation fund to look at the environmental and health impacts of plastics.

The state will also be required to reduce expanded polystyrene, which is commonly used in food containers, 25% by 2023, a goal experts say will be all but impossible to reach as so little of the material is currently recycled.

“It’s a de facto ban,” Jay Ziegler with the Nature Conservancy told the Times.

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