It sounds like the plastics/oil industry is trying to buy itself a few more years like it did with the plastics bag ban(s), by having Newsom’s administration insert exemptions.
Here in Hawai’i we have the funniest exception: if it doesn’t have handles, then it doesn’t count (I’m guessing this is an exception for trash can liners). So many of the restaurants now put your food in plastic bags without handles, tying it closed.
Then there’s all the “compostable” stuff that breaks and so you use more, but if you’re not putting it in an actual compost pile, it’s still just basically the same as a plastic utensil or straw.
Well on one side we have people and the other we have corporations, let’s pretend they are both holding equally valid POVs
~LA Times
She referred to a report from the Circular Action Alliance, the state-sanctioned group established to represent and oversee the implementation of the law on behalf of the plastic and packaging industry. It finds the law will increase the cost of disposal between six and 14 times for common products, such as Windex bottles, made of polyethylene terephthalate.
“If the producers don’t successfully sue to stop the fees, this will certainly add to product inflation for CA consumers,” she said in an email. “Californians already have to pay exorbitantly high curbside collection fees for trash, recycling, and organics … so, starting in 2027, our groceries will cost a LOT more but we won’t see a reduction in our waste bills.”
Right, I forgot about those Windex Chocolates that I buy every week.
It sure would be nice to see some reporting touch on important aspects that are less obvious, such as where does TetraPak fit in? I think it’s a plasticky cardboard that is currently somehow partially recyclable into shingles, and I believe it’s the only sterile milk container alternative to HDPE currently in common use.
I don’t remember back in the day when stuff like milk and Coke came is glass bottles that were returned in an orderly fashion, washed, sterilized, and reused with new disposable metal or cardboard lids, but I’ve heard that was common. Is there a particular scaling problem with that kind of infrastructure? Did it get outlawed due to falsified safety concerns lobbied by plastics manufacturers, or simply become too expensive next to single use plastics?
It’s been many years, but I’ve spent time in Jamaica, Honduras, and Thailand and all of those places did the glass bottle reuse thing when I was there. Was pretty great. Seems like it should work in the US just fine.
I remember soda bottles being collected and being send back for washing and refilling too!
Last time I saw that was in the 70s.
Evidently Tetra paks are recyclable. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XirqnOfdZ7M
I was skeptical too, but the US practice of shipping bales of discarded Tetrapaks to Mexico is weird.
Aren’t there underemployed people in the States?
The recycling machines don’t look that power intensive or sophisticated.