Apr 17 - Bags, Plastics, Mattresses in Focus in Today's Hearing
update: all three bills passed out of Senate Environmental Quality. Next they will head to appropriations committee.
Three waste and recycling bills will be heard in policy committee today at 9:30 that take on the world of fast food packaging, plastic bags and used mattresses.
• SB 254 (Hancock) tackles the widespread problem of dumped mattresses by requiring manufacturers to take back used mattresses at the end of life at no cost to the consumers. It sets ambitious recycling targets that will require most of these collected mattresses to be recycled.
• SB 405 (Padilla) bans single-use plastic bags at grocery stores (both large and small) and allows stores to sell reusable or paper bags. This bill has strong momentum behind it—to date 72 cities and counties are covered under adopted local ordinances banning single-use plastic bags.
• SB 529 (Leno) requires fast food chains to use food packaging that is compatible with local recycling or composting infrastructure. It reduces the type of non-recyclable, non-compostable takeout packaging that is so commonly littered or landfilled.