Big Plastic's well-funded attempt to overturn landmark California bag ban
In September, California passed the nation's first-ever ban on plastic bags, preventing billions of throwaway bags a year from flooding into landfills and waterways. It was a landmark case for plastic campaigners, and over 100 California communities that had passed their own bans. It was also a landmark defeat for the corporations that profit from plastic waste, specifically South Carolina-based plastic bag company Hilex Poly, which sank millions into an effort to sink the law.
Now, Hilex Poly is spending millions more to finance an expensive referendum a last-ditch attempt to overturn California's bag ban. It's fanning out an army across the state to collect signatures to overturn the ban, many of whom are using underhanded tactics, claiming that signers would be supporting a bag ban. If they get enough signatures, they can postpose California's ban until a referendum in 2016, where they will attempt to defeat it for good.
Tell Hilex Poly to stop trying to buy the law!
Hilex Poly and its allies are trying underhanded tactics to beat down the new law beacuse it is an enormous threat to the company. Companies know that consumers are getting fed up with a proliferation of single-use plastic bags clogging up our planet. They like to hide behind "freedom of choice" but when California chooses to ditch the bags, we see that by "choice" they mean always having plastic on the menu.
Hilex Poly thinks it can write a big, fat check and buy any law it wants. But we're standing up to the company. We don't just want to preserve the ban here in California -- we want to work with our members in other states to expand plastic bag bans to other parts of the United States to take the fight outwards. Look for updates over the next few months and let us know if you are interested in enacting a plastic bag ban in your own community.
Capitol Weekly: Plastic bag ban under well-funded attack, November 12, 2014