I’m proud to share this breaking news: The state legislature just passed the statewide ban on single-use plastic bags, SB 270! The final vote to send it to the governor’s desk was a late-night concurrence vote, 22-15 in the State Senate, just minutes ago.
Advocates including CLCV worked hard to change the votes of a handful of key Assemblymembers who had voted “no” or abstained during an earlier vote on the bill. But what really put us over the top for this victory? California’s grassroots environmental community, including members of CLCV. Tens of thousands of letters, calls, and emails, from real people who care about protecting our environment and ending the scourge of wasteful, polluting plastic bags in our beautiful state.
This is incredible news, and we have our supporters to thank! SB 270 now advances to the governor’s desk — stay tuned!
We congratulate SB 270 authors Senators Alex Padilla, Kevin de León and Ricardo Lara and our environmental partners who worked so hard to pass this bill. It’s been a hard-fought victory: CLCV has been working to pass a statewide plastic bag ban for more than 6 years. The plastic bag industry pulled out all the stops, spending millions of dollars to oppose this bill and previous bag bans to protect their profits.
At the end of the day, however, the grassroots pressure from environmental advocates like our supporters made all the difference. One by one, lawmakers who had previously voted no or withheld their votes agreed to support the bill.
As Senator Padilla put it: “Single-use plastic bags not only litter our beaches, but also our mountains, our deserts, and our rivers, streams and lakes. SB 270 strikes the right balance. It will protect the environment and it will protect California jobs as the state transitions to reusable bags.”
Once again, California is leading the way on environmental progress — with the governor’s signature, we’ll be the very first state to pass a law banning the plastic bag!
