The Status of Plastic Pollution and Litter Bills

The Six California bills aimed to curb plastic pollution and litter – where are they now?
Martin Wisckol, Orange County Register, 6/13/18

A package of six state bills aimed at reducing plastic and cigarette-butt litter — with an emphasis on trash that ends up in the ocean — has met with a mixed fate, with half advancing and half dying in their legislative chamber of origin.

Building momentum on California’s 2016 ballot referendum upholding a ban on single-use plastic grocery bags, the state Senate passed a bill targeting plastic food packaging at state beaches and parks, and another that would ban smoking on state beaches. Those bills will now be considered by the Assembly.

The Assembly passed a measure designed to limit the use of plastic straws, which now goes to the Senate. All three bills were passed largely on party-line votes, with Democrats backing the measures and Republicans opposed.
However, bills designed to reduce microfibers in the ocean, bottle-cap litter and cigarette butts on all beaches have all died for lack of support. Read more… Orange County Register