Nov 4 -Plastic Bag Manufacturers Double Down on Effort to Repeal California Plastic Bag Ban

Out-of-state bag manufacturers have already spent more than $3 million on paid signatures to place a repeal of SB 270, California's first in the nation plastic bag ban, put on the November 2016 ballot for voters to decide it's fate.  

An article in yesterday's San Jose Mercury News, Next California Plastic Bag Initiative is Tricky Strategy by Out-of-State Interests, describes the cynical ploy by the bag manufacturers to confuse voters by placing a second plastic bag measure on the ballot.  "Voters faced with too many choices get confused, and confused voters tend to vote no on everything," said John Matsusaka, Executive Director of the Initiative and Referendum Institute at the University of Southern California.  "In this case, that's exactly what the proponents of the referendum want."

The referendum on the November 2016 ballot will require a majority of "YES" votes to sustain the statewide bag ban.  Political experts believe that the plastic bag industry is likely to spend $25-50 million more on the campaign to protect the $10 billion in annual plastic grocery bag sales in California.  "What's so unusual about the bag makers' strategy is the commitment to support both the referendum campaign and a counter "poison pill" proposal that would take effect only if the referendum fails. Matsusaka said he's never seen anything like it before."  Hopefully in the end, Californians won't let out-of-state polluters harm their environment.