State picks up plastic slack

While the ordinance to ban single-use plastic bags in Chico sits on the shelf waiting for final adoption pending an investigation into whether its passage requires an environmental impact report, the state Legislature has reached a compromise on a bill to do the same thing, according to The Sacramento Bee.

Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima) wrote a bill last year that failed because of opposition from two fellow Democrats whose districts include plastic-bag factories. However, those two formerly opposed politicians, Senators Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) and Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens), have joined Padilla to offer a bill that would ban single-use plastic bags in large grocery stores next year and at pharmacies and liquor stores in 2016. The bill would also require reusable plastic bags to contain at least 20 percent recycled material beginning in 2016.