Scuttlebutt: Plastic!
Nearly 9 million tons of plastic enter the ocean each year globally, with that number expected to double by 2025 absent any action to prevent that happening. Think about that for a second. Can you even imagine what 18 billion pounds of plastic would look like? Don't feel bad. Neither can anyone else and that is part of the problem. We can't wrap our heads around what a huge impact we are having on our planet Oh, and our bodies. It has been estimated that we take into our bodies a credit cards worth of plastic each week. That's freaky!
Plastic production is also a major contributor to climate change, with its production expected to account for 20 percent of global oil consumption by 2050. Meanwhile, 92 percent of U.S. plastic waste is never recycled.
The California Legislature considered a number of bills dealing with plastic pollution and recycling in the recent legislative session. Several bills passed and that was a good thing. AB 792 requires beverage containers to contain no less than 10% post-consumer recycled plastic content by 2021, 25% by 2025 and 50% by 2030. AB 1162 will curb single-use plastic bottles in the lodging industry (those shampoo and lotion bottles). AB 1583,The California Recycling Market Development Act is focused on developing and bolstering the state’s recycling market as a response to China’s National Sword Policy of rejecting most foreign recyclables. SB 8/AB 1718 will ban smoking in state beaches and parks and combat the number one item found on beaches at cleanups: cigarette butts (a survey by Keep America Beautiful found that 77% of Americans do not think of cigarette butts as litter). Still, while I am aware that many cigarette smokers don't think they are littering when they toss a butt on the ground, my libertarian streak makes me a bit uneasy about banning personal behavior such as smoking outdoors. There are already laws to prohibit littering.
These are all measures specifically targeting certain issues, but the big bill, the California Circular Economy and Plastic Pollution Reduction Act did not pass. This was a comprehensive bill that tackled a wide range of solid waste issues and would really have made a difference.
But fear not. The California initiative process allows us citizens to act when our often compromised legislators do not. Led by our own solid waste company, Recology, 14 environmental organizations are backing the California Recycling and Plastic Pollution Reduction Act of 2020. This omnibus measure covers a wide variety of issues all related to recycling and creating a circular economy; that is, one that does not simply grind up our resources and dump them in the ocean or a landfill.
Recology is backing the measure with $1 million along with $500,000 from the Plant Based Products Council, and potentially more aid from The Nature Conservancy, toward a $4.5 million goal.
A key element of the initiative would create a sliding scale "Plastic Pollution Reduction Fee" of $0.01 or less to be applied to select single-use products starting in 2022 as a way to pay for a range of new projects. This is similar to an action recently taken by the European Union and is a paradigm shift in the way we view who is responsible for pollution. Heretofore, it has been the consumer who has been responsible despite having little, if any, choice in designing or using single use plastics. We are on the threshold of entering a time when producers of products become responsible for what they create just as we individuals are responsible for what we create.
Recology's Eric Potashner, vice president and senior director of strategic affairs states, "It takes a lot of money and our entire infrastructure to date has been funded by rate bases (ed: meaning rate payers) .... we can’t keep creating these new mandates for recycling …. and only be able to go back to our rate base. If California does something significant it’s probably going to raise the bar for at least the country, if not the globe".
This fee could generate revenues "likely in the range of a few billion dollars annually", depending on sales volumes, according to the Legislative Analyst's Office.
I'm really excited by this initiative because of its comprehensive approach to dealing with our waste. It contains provisions that deal with a large range of issues.
My favorite is the banning of styrofoam food containers, but that's just me. More importantly it creates a Plastic Recycling Market Development Program to create a supply of recycled feed stock to support the manufacturing of products made from recycled materials. It makes no sense to require recycled content in products if stock made of recycled material is not available.
The bill also supports practices by farmers and ranchers that establish healthy soils and water-smart practices as well as recycling and composting infrastructure. There are also Market Development programs for fiber, paper, cardboard, glass, and organics.
Also included are grants to state and local public agencies to mitigate the impacts of plastic pollution, and to protect and restore wildlife and the environment including coastal and ocean ecosystems, streams and rivers. Since the Circular Economy Grant Program will be allocated to projects that benefit low-income households this leads me to think that perhaps there would be some money for Point Arena to clear Arena Creek. If that is out of reach there may be other funds out of those billions that could reach our area.
This is our chance to make a serious step toward reversing our planet-destroying ways and actually think about what kind of future planet we want to leave when the fossil fuel era is over.
The initiative is currently at the signature collection stage and must collect 960,000 signatures by April 21, 2020. Look for and sign petitions when you see them. The initiative's title is sort of long and clunky, but just remember the phrase “Plastic Pollution Reduction”.
