An ongoing issue we have been following is the movement in California to ban plastic grocery bags. Though environmentalists have been pushing for the ban for years, it was just last Friday, August 29th, that the California Senate finally passed a bill banning California grocery, convenience, and drug stores from providing single-use plastics bags. In order for the ban to take effect, Governor Jerry Brown would have to sign the bill into law, though Reuters has stated he hasn’t signaled a position on the measure.

According to a report by Plastics News, the bill includes $2 million in funding within California’s recycling fund so that “plastic bag makers would be able to apply for grants to retrain workers or reorganize operations to make bags that would meet the new state-wide requirements in the bill.”

Lee Califf, executive director of the American Progressive Bag Alliance (APBA), released a statement before the senate vote that said, “It’s disappointing that members of the Assembly voted to advance a bill that threatens 2,000 California manufacturing jobs, hurts consumers and puts billions of dollars into the pockets of grocers — without providing any benefit to the environment.”

It’s important to note that this bill, and similar movements in other states, only seeks to ban the use of plastic grocery bags and not the custom bags we manufacture. Still, it’s an issue we’re keeping an eye on because its ramifications across the plastics industry could be far reaching. We will keep you updated on the situation in California, as well as other high-profile bag-ban proposals in other areas.