Bill could impose fee on plastic bags in California

Shoppers in California could end up incurring recycling charges for using plastic carrier bags. Two bills which are set to be deliberated by the Assembly Natural Resources Committee would permit charges of between fifteen to twenty five cents on every plastic bag in a bid to dissuade big retailers and pharmacy stores from using plastic carrier bags.

Defenders of the move say this was bound to happen after a scheme was introduced in July 2007 which required big retailers and drug stores to begin recycling plastic carrier bags as well as selling shopping bags that were reusable.

The president of the California Retailers Association, William Dombrowski, however argues that legislators should give the recycling schemes more time to succeed before contemplating charges meant to dissuade shoppers and retailers from using plastic carrier bags.

In a note to Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, a Sherman Oaks Democrat who is one of those behind the bills, William Dombrowski claimed that shopper awareness and conduct had already started to change, as evidenced by the fact that more people had started using reusable shopping bags.

The executive director of Californians Against Waste, Mark Murray admitted that they had increased the amount of plastic carrier bags undergoing recycling from two per cent to four per cent. He added that for significant change to be made then the measures taken had to be more hard-hitting.

Nineteen billion plastic carrier bags are used in California annually and they present a danger to the environment since they get blown out of recycling bins thereby littering the ground and some of them end up in the various water channels.