California on Track to Enact Nations First Statewide Plastic Bag Ban

Plastic bags float in green slime in Compton Creek,custom bob, a tributary of the Los Angeles river,,. The trash that flows through inland waterways eventually ends up in the ocean and on the beach,..

Governor Jerry Brown will sign a bill to ban plastic bags in California, he said in gubernatorial debate Thursday night. The legislation, which passed the state Senate on ,.., will make California the first state in the country to comprehensively outlaw thin, single-use plastic bags.

The debate's moderator, John Myers, senior editor at KQED News had asked: "One of the most talked about bills at the state capitol this year was the statewide ban on plastic bags. So let me ask you the simple question first: paper or plastic?"

“I probably will sign it,?, yes,” Brown . “In fact,custom, I’ll tell you why I’m going to sign it …. There are about 50 cities with their own plastic bag ban,custom bo, and that’s causing a lot of confusion."

Environmentalists,custom made, of course, support the ban. claims that California spends between $34 and $107 million dollars on plastic bag cleanup every year. They say bags also threaten marine life, particularly sea turtles who mistake them for jellyfish floating in the water and eat them.

Plastic bag manufacturers and state Republicans are opposed, arguing that the ban will and represents . Neel Kashkari, who's running against Brown for governor, though trailing in the polls, disapproved too.

Poverty? Jobs? Education? Rebuilding the middle class? Nope. Plastic bags.

— Neel Kashkari (@neelkashkari)

The will prohibit grocery stores and large pharmacies from using plastic bags as of July 1 2015, and expand to include convenience stores by 2016, according to the . It also $2 million in loans and grants to help manufacturers retrain workers and adapt to producing reusable bags.

The bill's passage was marked by legislative struggle and compromise. The United Food and Commercial Workers Union had pulled their support for the ban earlier that week, but after the bill was amended to allow grocers to charge at least $0.10 for reusable bags.

Senate President pro Tempore-elect Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) had opposed previous plastic bag bans in part because a bag manufacturer is located in . He supported this bill after provisions were added to protect manufacturers, according to the . One such provision: the $2 million in manufacturing loans.

“This is a compromise,” Brown . “It’s taking into account the needs of the environment, and the needs of the economy and the needs of the grocers.”

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