From the WSJ
In California, ‘Paper or Plastic?’ Is Against the Law
Supermarkets can no longer give out shopping bags, though the claimed benefits are dubious.
By
Allysia Finley
Jan. 27, 2017 6:41 p.m. ET
Photo: Eric Risberg/Associated Press
There’s no such thing as a free bag—at least not anymore in California. Voters in November approved, 53% to 47%, a law outright banning single-use, carry-out plastic bags. Grocery and convenience stores can offer paper or reusable bags, but the law requires them to charge at least 10 cents a pop. While pot is now legal in the Golden State, plastic bags are contraband. Welcome to the liberal dystopia.
California’s bag ban is a classic marriage of economic protectionism and government paternalism, dressed up in environmental virtue. As with so many other progressive policies, the ban is likely to have unintended consequences.
The statewide bag ban was hatched by politicians in Sacramento, in part as a solution to a problem created by . . . politicians in Sacramento. In 2006, the state Legislature passed a law that required large grocery stores to run recycling programs to collect plastic bags. To obtain grocers’ support for the law, the Legislature prohibited cities or counties from imposing fees on plastic bags.
San Francisco responded to this prohibition the following year by banning plastic bags entirely. Nearly 150 cities and counties followed suit, though the local rules varied. Sonoma County put a fee on paper bags, requiring grocers to charge a minimum of 10 cents. Nearby Marin County imposed a 5-cent fee.
The justifications for banning plastic bags have also varied. Liberals in San Francisco proclaimed that the city’s ban would reduce global warming and America’s reliance on foreign oil. Yet only about 3% of plastic bags are produced using oil, according to a 2014 report from the Reason Foundation. Most are made from natural gas, which is now cheap and abundant in the U.S. Many reusable bags, on the other hand, are derived from oil, and produced in Asia to boot.
Research has shown that paper, cloth and reusable bags produce many times more greenhouse-gas emissions over their life cycles. A 2011 study performed for the United Kingdom’s Environmental Agency found that a paper bag, compared with a plastic one, was 3.3 times worse in terms of greenhouse gases. The study also found that paper bags resulted in more water and air pollution.
But even if banning plastic bags does nothing to stave off global warming, how about keeping local streets clean? Turns out plastic bags make up a tiny share of litter, less than 1% in most cities, according to a 2013 survey by Environmental Resources Planning. A 2009 litter survey by Keep America Beautiful found that plastic bags make up less than 1% of objects caught in storm drainers. And any high-school kid who’s volunteered at a beach cleanup can tell you that cigarette butts and glass shards are more prevalent in the sandy dunes and rocky piers than shopping bags.
While plastic bags don’t pose a mortal danger to the planet, reusable ones can present a significant public-health risk. A 2012 study by two university academics found that emergency-room admissions in San Francisco from food-borne illnesses surged after the city imposed its ban. Many people, it seems, were reusing their bags without washing them first. If washing seems like no big deal, remember California’s drought.
In any case, the patchwork of bag rules grated on grocery stores’ profits. A 2012 study by the National Center for Policy Analysis found that Los Angeles County’s ban shifted commerce to incorporated cities where plastic bags remained free and legal. In the months after the ban passed, employment dropped by an average of 10.4% at grocery stores in the county’s unincorporated areas. Meanwhile, the at-store recycling centers, mandated by the 2006 law, were expensive to operate and produced uncertain benefits, since few customers returned their bags.
That’s why the California Grocers Association joined green groups to lobby for the current law banning plastic bags statewide. The requirement that stores charge at least 10 cents for alternative bags was meant to keep retailers from undercutting each other by giving them out free. Farmers markets, naturally, were exempted.
Yet the patchwork remains, since cities and counties with existing bag bans were grandfathered in. This suggests that grocers might have had a different goal: boosting their margins, 10 cents at a time, to help offset California’s rising minimum wage.
Meanwhile, Democrats declared that the law would help create jobs in California. Most manufacturers of plastic bags are located in other states that have lower energy costs. Banning those bags would increase demand for reusable ones made in California. Crying foul at the de facto trade barrier, the nation’s biggest plastic-bag manufacturers launched a referendum to overturn the law.
But it failed. California’s population is concentrated in coastal areas that already had local bag bans, so it’s no surprise that a majority of voters in these counties backed the statewide prohibition. Voters in inland counties strongly opposed the alliance of big business and government, but there simply weren’t enough of them to win.
The bottom line is that if you’re planning to visit California, be sure to pack some extra bags. They’ve become a rare commodity.
Ms. Finley is an editorial writer for the Journal.
In California, ‘Paper or Plastic?’ Is Against the Law
Supermarkets can no longer give out shopping bags, though the claimed benefits are dubious.
By
Allysia Finley
Jan. 27, 2017 6:41 p.m. ET
Photo: Eric Risberg/Associated Press
There’s no such thing as a free bag—at least not anymore in California. Voters in November approved, 53% to 47%, a law outright banning single-use, carry-out plastic bags. Grocery and convenience stores can offer paper or reusable bags, but the law requires them to charge at least 10 cents a pop. While pot is now legal in the Golden State, plastic bags are contraband. Welcome to the liberal dystopia.
California’s bag ban is a classic marriage of economic protectionism and government paternalism, dressed up in environmental virtue. As with so many other progressive policies, the ban is likely to have unintended consequences.
The statewide bag ban was hatched by politicians in Sacramento, in part as a solution to a problem created by . . . politicians in Sacramento. In 2006, the state Legislature passed a law that required large grocery stores to run recycling programs to collect plastic bags. To obtain grocers’ support for the law, the Legislature prohibited cities or counties from imposing fees on plastic bags.
San Francisco responded to this prohibition the following year by banning plastic bags entirely. Nearly 150 cities and counties followed suit, though the local rules varied. Sonoma County put a fee on paper bags, requiring grocers to charge a minimum of 10 cents. Nearby Marin County imposed a 5-cent fee.
The justifications for banning plastic bags have also varied. Liberals in San Francisco proclaimed that the city’s ban would reduce global warming and America’s reliance on foreign oil. Yet only about 3% of plastic bags are produced using oil, according to a 2014 report from the Reason Foundation. Most are made from natural gas, which is now cheap and abundant in the U.S. Many reusable bags, on the other hand, are derived from oil, and produced in Asia to boot.
Research has shown that paper, cloth and reusable bags produce many times more greenhouse-gas emissions over their life cycles. A 2011 study performed for the United Kingdom’s Environmental Agency found that a paper bag, compared with a plastic one, was 3.3 times worse in terms of greenhouse gases. The study also found that paper bags resulted in more water and air pollution.
But even if banning plastic bags does nothing to stave off global warming, how about keeping local streets clean? Turns out plastic bags make up a tiny share of litter, less than 1% in most cities, according to a 2013 survey by Environmental Resources Planning. A 2009 litter survey by Keep America Beautiful found that plastic bags make up less than 1% of objects caught in storm drainers. And any high-school kid who’s volunteered at a beach cleanup can tell you that cigarette butts and glass shards are more prevalent in the sandy dunes and rocky piers than shopping bags.
While plastic bags don’t pose a mortal danger to the planet, reusable ones can present a significant public-health risk. A 2012 study by two university academics found that emergency-room admissions in San Francisco from food-borne illnesses surged after the city imposed its ban. Many people, it seems, were reusing their bags without washing them first. If washing seems like no big deal, remember California’s drought.
In any case, the patchwork of bag rules grated on grocery stores’ profits. A 2012 study by the National Center for Policy Analysis found that Los Angeles County’s ban shifted commerce to incorporated cities where plastic bags remained free and legal. In the months after the ban passed, employment dropped by an average of 10.4% at grocery stores in the county’s unincorporated areas. Meanwhile, the at-store recycling centers, mandated by the 2006 law, were expensive to operate and produced uncertain benefits, since few customers returned their bags.
That’s why the California Grocers Association joined green groups to lobby for the current law banning plastic bags statewide. The requirement that stores charge at least 10 cents for alternative bags was meant to keep retailers from undercutting each other by giving them out free. Farmers markets, naturally, were exempted.
Yet the patchwork remains, since cities and counties with existing bag bans were grandfathered in. This suggests that grocers might have had a different goal: boosting their margins, 10 cents at a time, to help offset California’s rising minimum wage.
Meanwhile, Democrats declared that the law would help create jobs in California. Most manufacturers of plastic bags are located in other states that have lower energy costs. Banning those bags would increase demand for reusable ones made in California. Crying foul at the de facto trade barrier, the nation’s biggest plastic-bag manufacturers launched a referendum to overturn the law.
But it failed. California’s population is concentrated in coastal areas that already had local bag bans, so it’s no surprise that a majority of voters in these counties backed the statewide prohibition. Voters in inland counties strongly opposed the alliance of big business and government, but there simply weren’t enough of them to win.
The bottom line is that if you’re planning to visit California, be sure to pack some extra bags. They’ve become a rare commodity.
Ms. Finley is an editorial writer for the Journal.
