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Press Release
Leading Environmental Organizations React to Enactment of Senate Bill 54
July 03, 2022
Links to organizational press releases issued on June 30, 2022 in response to Governor Gavin Newsom's signing of Senate Bill 54 (Allen)
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Press Release
Leading Environmental Organizations Applaud Passage of Landmark Bill to Tackle Plastic Pollution
July 03, 2022
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, June 30, 2022
SACRAMENTO – Many of California’s leading environmental organizations are applauding the Legislature for passing Senate Bill 54, which creates the nation’s most comprehensive and ambitious policy for combatting plastic pollution.
SB 54 earned overwhelming bipartisan votes in both the Assembly yesterday (67-2 vote) and Senate today (enter final vote count). The bill now heads immediately to Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk for his signature.
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Press Release
Leading Environmental Organizations Call on Legislature and Governor to Pass Senate Bill 54 This Week
June 26, 2022
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sunday, June 26, 2022
SACRAMENTO – Many of California’s leading environmental organizations are calling on the Legislature and Governor Newsom to pass Senate Bill 54 this week.
Working with Assembly Natural Resources committee chair Assemblywoman Luz Rivas (D-San Fernando Valley), lead author Senator Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica) amended Senate Bill 54 on Friday night to strengthen environmental protections, increase CalRecycle’s authority, and make important clarifications.
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National Geographic
Microplastics are in our bodies. How much do they harm us?
April 29, 2022
As plastic waste proliferates around the world, an essential question remains unanswered: What harm, if any, does it cause to human health?
A few years ago, as microplastics began turning up in the guts of fish and shellfish, the concern was focused on the safety of seafood. Shellfish were a particular worry, because in their case, unlike fish, we eat the entire animal—stomach, microplastics and all. In 2017, Belgian scientists announced that seafood lovers could consume up to 11,000 plastic particles a year by eating mussels, a favorite dish in that country.
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Los Angeles Times
Big fight brewing over California ballot measure to reduce single-use plastic
April 19, 2022
On any given afternoon, the garbage cans in San Jose’s Westfield Oakridge Mall food court overflow with plastic spoons, forks, soft drink cups and takeout food containers. Paper frozen yogurt containers are mashed in with plastic boba tea cups and soda bottles.
The same can be seen across California — piles of single-use plastics that can’t easily be recycled, pollute roadsides and waterways and add to the garbage that clogs landfills.
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KQED
California’s Plastic Problem
March 10, 2022
Plastic is a big part of our everyday lives: It keeps our food fresh, has made all kinds of advanced medical equipment possible, and is a key component in a broad range of innovations from cars to computers, from phones to contact lenses.
But new research is finding plastic in places you wouldn’t expect: in our water, in salt, and in the placentas of pregnant women. Tiny particles of microplastics are in the air we breathe and in the waters of the San Francisco Bay.
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CalMatters
Cristina Garcia: Vote to reduce plastics and clean up our environment
March 02, 2022
I still remember the poster on the wall at Bell Gardens Intermediate School back in 1987: “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.”
The order of those words mattered, our teachers told us: first, reduce everything we can, then reuse what we can’t reduce, and finally we recycle what’s left.
But that’s not how things played out, especially with plastics.
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LA Times
Editorial: COVID-19 was a pandemic for plastic too
November 11, 2021
COVID-19 is a plague on humanity, but it hasn’t been that kind to the planet either.
Our efforts to avoid infection led to an unavoidable increase in single-use plastic. Just how much more we are only now starting to grasp.
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POLITICO PRO
Appliance manufacturers throw support behind plastics tax
October 18, 2021
A major appliance manufacturing trade group is supporting a proposed California ballot initiative that would tax plastic packaging.
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KCBS Radio
New initiative hopes to reduce plastic waste ad consumption
July 24, 2021
A new initiative to regulate and reduce plastic packaging in California has already made its way onto the ballot for the 2022 election. And environmental experts are hopeful about the impact new legislation could have on the environment.