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   From: nonthinkers@ccalifornia.com   
      
   (Reuters) - The California state legislature enacted a ban on   
   plastic grocery bags on Friday near the end of its two-year   
   session, a measure that if signed into law would become the   
   first of its kind in America.   
      
   A number of cities and counties in California and other U.S.   
   states, including Hawaii's Maui County, have made it illegal for   
   grocery stores to pack purchases in plastic. But at the state   
   level, opposition from plastic bag makers has usually prevailed.   
      
   The California Senate voted 22-15 for the bill, which must be   
   signed into law by Sept. 30 by Democratic Governor Jerry Brown,   
   who has not signaled a position on the measure.   
      
   "Single-use plastic bags not only litter our beaches, but also   
   our mountains, our deserts, and our rivers, streams and lakes,"   
   said state Senator Alex Padilla, who sponsored the bill.   
      
   Padilla backed a similar measure last year but it failed by   
   three votes. The fate of this bill was uncertain until the   
   waning hours of the session after falling three votes short in   
   the state's Assembly on Monday.   
      
   But after picking up the support of the United Food and   
   Commercial Workers Union, the bill passed a second vote in the   
   Assembly.   
      
   The measure would ban grocery stores from handing out single-use   
   grocery bags with customers' purchases, and provide money to   
   local plastic bag companies to retool to make heavier, multiple-   
   use bags that customers could buy.   
      
   Environmentalists have pushed for banning plastic bags, which   
   are cheaper for supermarkets to use than paper bags, but create   
   mountains of trash that is difficult to recycle. In California,   
   there is particular concern that the bags, when swept out to   
   sea, could harm ocean life.   
      
   After the defeat of his earlier bill, Padilla won the support of   
   some California-based bag makers by including the funding for   
   retooling. But in recent months, out-of-state manufacturers   
   campaigned against the bill, even producing television   
   advertisements targeting Padilla, who is running for secretary   
   of state.   
      
   Cathy Browne, general manager at Crown Poly, a plastic bag   
   manufacturer in Huntington Park, California, said the bill would   
   lead to layoffs at companies like hers.   
      
   More than 10 billion plastic bags are used in California each   
   year, according to an estimate by Californians Against Waste, an   
   advocacy group supporting the bill.   
      
   http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/30/us-usa-california-bags-   
   idUSKBN0GU06E20140830   
      
       
      
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