 Welcome to In the Studio. I'm your host, Martha Teeter, and today we're gonna be talking about the single-use plastic bag ban, something of the history of the ban, why the ban, and are there effects of the ban. And my guest today is Genevieve Abaddon from Californians Against Waste. Welcome so much. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, welcome to the studio, great. So we first wanna talk a little bit about why the plastic bag ban is important single-use plastic bag. Yeah, well plastic bags are detrimental to the environment, they're detrimental to wildlife, they're expensive to clean up, and they're truly and easily preventable source of litter. So what in particular in the environment is a problem for the plastic bags? Plastic pollution is a growing problem both on land and in the water. When plastic ends up in the environment, it can collect toxins that adhere to it, and those can bioaccumulate up the food chain. The Ocean Conservancy actually recently just deemed plastic bags as the number two deadliest threat to much of marine life, including sea turtles, for example, their food, they eat jellyfish and a plastic bag when it ends up in the ocean resembles a jellyfish, and so they can tend to eat it and then essentially starve to death with the stomach full of plastic. And sea turtles live a long time, don't they? They do. So that can be a really big effect, wow. Yeah, so in terms of cleanup and that sort of thing, why are plastic bags that much of a problem? Well, the producers of their plastic bags don't actually incur the costs of having to clean them up. Even when we think we're properly disposing of a plastic bag, they can tend to blow out of landfills and trash cans and end up in our parks and our waterways and it's actually taxpayers who have to pay for the cost of that cleanup. Well, don't they have things like recycling plastic bags? They do. It has been tried and it's not very effective. Unfortunately, there's not a great market for plastic bag recycling and it's been actually proven that only about 3% of bags truly get recycled. Wow, so those little things outside the grocery store, they really don't work that much. Not that much. People have to take the extra step to get them there and I think that really deters a lot of people. So simply banning them seems to be the alternative, the best alternative to having them around. We have actually a video that talks a little bit about this problem, it's a wrap, a lively wrap about plastic versus paper. Plastic state of mind. Okay, would you like paper or plastic? So that was really lively talking about the problems and what you can do. In fact, I think you brought here in the studio some alternatives to plastic bags. So there's the heavier one that's very durable, easy to wash and actually they all look easy to wash. The one in the middle is a very light one. I guess you could kind of crunch that up and easily put it in your purse. And the white one too, yeah. So there's quite a few alternatives, yeah. Absolutely. Well, tell me about the plastic bag ban history. How has it come to California? How has it come to Davis? Yeah, well, San Francisco was the first city and county to ban plastic bags in 2007. Since then, 151 cities and counties, about 44% of the state is now covered under a plastic bag ban, including Davis. And Davis passed their ban in 2013. It covers all retail stores and includes a 10 cent charge for these paper or reusable bag alternatives. It has proven to be very effective. The city has gone from about 23 million plastic bags per year to just over 100, sorry, 1.5 million. So that's about a 95% reduction. Wow, 95% reduction, that's pretty amazing. So the idea is that a lot of cities took the ban into their own hands. And then what about the state? So then there's only about half the state is covered by the city bans. And so what happened with the state? Well, these bans have really created momentum for a plastic bag ban to get passed in the state in 2014. So we have a ban now? We technically do have a ban. Unfortunately, just months after it passed through the legislature and was signed by the governor, four out of state plastic bag manufacturers paid millions of dollars to get a referendum put on the November ballot that's coming up. And so now it will be up to voters to decide its fate. And when is that coming up? So that'll be November 8th in our presidential ballot. It's going to be proposition 67 at the very end of the ballot. And a yes vote will uphold the ban and a no vote will rescind the ban. Okay, so is this easy to understand on the ballot that a yes note will uphold the ban and a no vote will? Hopefully. It is a little bit confusing and I think it comes. But just so our audience knows, yes means no bags, no single use plastic bags. Okay, okay, great, that's helpful. Okay, yeah. So in essence, these out of state manufacturers are trying to influence California law. They are and as much as this is about banning plastic bags and the detriments that they have to our environment, it's very much so about telling, you know, out of state special interests that they can't just come into California and overturn our hard-fought environmental laws this way. I see, I see, okay. Yeah, so in terms of the plastic bags, I know a lot of people use them multiple times. Isn't that an alternative to a complete 100% ban on them? I guess in Davis even it's like not 100%. Right, yeah, well it's not really a viable alternative as we all know they're pretty flimsy. They don't tend to even make it beyond one use. I mean maybe they're used for about 12 minutes and then thrown away and even if they are reused, they tend to just be used once and then they end up in a landfill. Maybe someone reuses it in their trash can or for their pet and so single time reuse isn't that much of a reuse. Yeah, and even sometimes when I've tried to use them, I find that they leak a little bit. They're not perfect fit, yeah. So what about the actual effects in cities which have banned the bag? How much difference has it made? Yeah, a great deal of difference and actually a few cities and counties have been tracking their bans and one in particular San Jose has found that there is a 59% reduction since their ban has been passed in streets and parks, a 69% reduction in storm drains and a 76% reduction in rivers and creeks. And various other cities and counties have found that over double the residents are either bringing their own reusable bags or leaving with no bag at all. And what about Davis? What's been the situation in Davis? Well, one thing in particular, as I mentioned before, there's been a huge reduction in numbers and additionally, the waste and recycling facility, they've seen a 90% reduction in plastic bag litter blowing around, getting out of the landfills and whatnot and blowing into trees and that's a cost that they have to incur. And I know that in many cities and counties, these plastic bags can actually gum up the recycling equipment. So if people put them in their curbside recycling, thinking that they're doing a good thing, that they can actually have to stop what they're doing and fix their machinery and that can cost them a lot of time and money. Yeah, and I guess that must be Davis waste removal, that's the one, yeah. And where should they go actually? They don't go in recycling, they're plastic, but they're not different kind of plastic. So do they, I mean. Yeah, technically, they should go in those bins. Well, they think actually they're film plastic, which is trash. So they actually shouldn't, they probably should just go right in the trash. Do you ever get one with your outside packaging from a plastic bag, fruit plastic bag or something like that? Yeah, well you can actually, if you don't mind taking the extra step, you can actually take those to your local grocery store. That's true, yes. And many of them will tend to have the bins. Yeah, that's a special bin. It's a special bin, yeah. Yeah, so that's why we're hoping to just, completely eliminate them, yeah. Look at alternatives. Well, this has been very helpful. I've learned a lot about the history and particularly the effect on the environment. I really appreciate that. I'm sure that the situation people will look for alternatives because yeah, I know already I've seen a lot of people using the reusable bags. There's really a viable alternative available. The only trick is like in the video, you have to remember to have one and that's why I always carry one in my purse with me. So even if I forget, I can go in. Yeah, and it does become habit after a while, absolutely. Yeah, right and that's the key to make it a habit and to also make it accessible when you need it, when you're in the store or whatever, yeah. Absolutely. Great, so we're really thank you a lot for coming to tell us about all of this data on particularly the environment effect and on the history of the ban. And thank you for sharing your time with us. My pleasure. And thank you for joining us today. We really appreciate your coming to listen about the plastic ban and something that's very relevant right now in California. Thank you so much.