A California Split on Plastics Legislation

The governor vetoes a bill that would ban forever chemicals in cookware while the state attorney general pursues "rogue" plastic bag producers.

What happens in California doesn’t stay in California. That’s one of the perks of being an economic powerhouse: The Golden State would be the fourth or fifth largest economy in the world, depending on which metrics you use, if it were a sovereign nation. That came to mind recently as a couple of events affecting the plastics industry hit the news: Gov. Gavin Newsom’s veto of a bill that would have phased out the use of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), aka “forever chemicals,” in cookware and food packaging and state Attorney General Rob Bonta filing a lawsuit against three companies for allegedly producing non-recyclable plastic bags and marketing them as recyclable.

Newsom kills bill because of cookware affordability concerns:

Newsom returned Senate bill 682 to the California Senate without his signature, effectively killing the bill. SB 682 would have prohibited the distribution or sale of food packaging containing intentionally added PFAS statewide starting Jan. 1, 2028. It also would have prohibited the distribution and sale in California of cookware with intentionally added PFAS after Jan. 1, 2030.

While Newsom said in the unsigned letter to the Senate that he shared the goal of protecting “human health and the environment by phasing out the use of PFAS in consumer products,” he expressed concern about the bill’s impact on the “availability of affordable options in cooking products.” He ended the letter with notes of encouragement for the bill’s author, Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica), and stakeholders to “continue discussion in this space while ensuring that we are not sacrificing the ability of Californians to afford household products like cookware.

The bill had garnered national attention due to the cookware provisions specifically, with fierce resistance from industry stakeholders like the Cookware Sustainability Alliance and celebrity chefs like Rachael Ray voicing their opposition, noted the National Law Review in an article posted on Oct. 20. Various environmental advocacy groups also voiced their disapproval. Newsom, it should be noted, recently has taken much more moderate positions on a number of issues than in the past as he considers a run for president. While he maintains that he is not thinking about running, he did tell the Wall Street Journal that it was a “path I could see unfold.

State attorney general relentless in pursuit of perceived corporate malfeasance

Meanwhile, Attorney General Rob Bonta ended months of speculation that he might seek higher office and run for governor when he said earlier this year that he would run for a second term as attorney general. Unburdened by having to broaden his constituency, he has been relentless in pursuing what he considers to be corporate malfeasance, notably by filing a lawsuit against ExxonMobil last year for a “decades-long campaign of deception that caused and exacerbated the global plastics pollution crisis.

Earlier this month, on Oct. 17, Bonta announced the conclusion of a statewide investigation into plastic bag producers to determine if they were, indeed, supplying bags that are recyclable within the framework of the state’s infrastructure, as required by law. The announcement stated that he had reached a settlement with four plastic bag producers — Revolution Sustainable Solutions LLC, Metro Poly Corp., PreZero US Packaging LLC, and Advance Polybag Inc. At the same time, Bonta filed a lawsuit against Novolex Holdings LLC, Inteplast Group Corp., and Mettler Packaging LLC.

All seven manufacturers have provided billions of plastic bags used by California grocery retailers and have certified that these bags meet the recyclability requirements of Senate bill 270, according to Bonta. “However, despite the manufacturers' claims and widespread consumer belief, these plastic bags do not, in fact, appear to generally be recyclable, let alone ‘recyclable in the state,’ as SB 270 requires,” said Bonta.

As part of the settlement, “Revolution, Metro Poly, PreZero, and API have agreed to halt plastic bag sales in California and collectively pay $1,753,000, which includes $1,115,750 in civil penalties and $636,250 in attorneys’ fees and costs,” Bonta wrote in the announcement posted on his website. He said that he will seek monetary penalties, disgorgement, and injunctive relief in the lawsuit with the other three companies.

In addition to violating SB 270, Bonta alleges that the companies ran afoul of the Environmental Marketing Claims Act, False Advertising Law, and Unfair Competition Law.

California pioneers plastic bag bans

California was the first US state to ban single-use plastic bags in 2014. Since then, 11 more states have passed similar legislation, along with many counties and cities.

When SB 270 was first passed into law in California, it made an exception for thicker plastic carryout bags made from high-density polyethylene that were considered reusable and met certain recyclability standards. Presumably, some of the companies investigated by Bonta sought to leverage this loophole. In any event, a new law — SB 1073 — will ban all single-use plastic bags at supermarkets and other retail outlets starting on Jan. 1, 2026. Stores will only be allowed to sell reusable plastic bags made with recycled content or recycled paper bags.

source : Plastics Today