04/18/2024

Straws. Bottle caps. Polyester. These are the new targets of California’s environmental movement

“What we do has not just national, but international implications. We’re the fifth-largest economy in the world,” said Assembly Majority Leader Ian Calderon (D-Whittier), who introduced a bill this year that bars sit-down restaurants from providing plastic straws unless a customer requests one. “You better believe that if we do something and it works here, everyone’s going to adopt it.”

Calderon has also teamed up with Assemblyman Mark Stone (D-Scotts Valley), a longtime environmental leader, on a law that would prohibit retailers from selling single-use plastic bottles with caps that do not remain tethered to the container after opening.

A bill by Assemblyman Richard Hershel Bloom (D-Santa Monica), who had authored the microbeads bill and is a co-author on the straws and caps bills, requires all new clothing made with more than 50% synthetic material have a label that warns of microfiber shedding during washing.

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