Actresses Lobby to Ban Single-Use Plastic Bags

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't the only celebrity walking the halls in Sacramento. On Tuesday, June 1st, actresses Rosario Dawson, Amy Smart, and Rachelle Lefevre joined Environment California's legislative director Dan Jacobson at the California state capitol, to lobby members of the Assembly for their support on AB 1998, a high profile bill that would ban plastic bags.

Earlier in the morning, the four joined Assmeblywoman Brownley, representatives from the California Grocers Association and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, Heal the Bay, and Californians Against Waste for a press conference highlighting the historic wide-spread and diverse support for this legislation.

Bringing great attention to what is at stake, actress Amy Smart noted, "California's economy is pumped up by the $53 billion that is generated each year as a result of these clean beaches." Rosario Dawson spoke on the reality that "nothing we use for 5 minutes should pollute our oceans for 500 years." Rachelle Lefevre noted the coalition is serious, saying, "if Sacramento can't or won't get it done, we will work with mayors and others around the state to solve this problem."

Their message was heard: the following day, the California state Assembly passed AB 1998 with 41 votes. AB 1998 (Brownley) would ban grocery stores, pharmacies and convenience stores from giving away free plastic bags at the point of checkout.

"Environment California applauds the California State Assembly and Speaker Perez for passing AB 1998 today. With oil spewing into our oceans, and the Pacific Garbage Patch growing bigger every year, this bill take real action to protect our oceans," said Gina Goodhill, Oceans Advocate with Environment California.

The bill now heads for the Senate, where it will go first to either the Natural Resources and Water Committee or the Environmental Quality Committee.

 

Comments

[sdiaz]

02:13 AM on 06/07/2010

the state of california is falling apart and our reps are worried about ... plastic bags.

[ACMallet]

11:25 PM on 06/05/2010

Bring your own. One of the major chains here in California gives you a credit of 5 cents for each bag you bring. Not much, but it's better than cursing the darkness.

[Debrah Leonard]

07:16 PM on 06/05/2010

Yes, to recycling!
No, to plastic.
Yes, to MARSHALL WRIGHT!

What a brilliant addition to Huffington Post!

[TarheelinLA]

05:00 PM on 06/05/2010

"nothing we use for 5 minutes should pollute our oceans for 500 years."

Here here! Anyone who has seen pictures of the floating island of plastic the size of TEXAS in the Pacific, anyone who cares for our planet, and anyone, like myself, with a 10 month old son who wonders about the future of our planet welcomes this legislatio­n with open arms. Kudos to California for once again leading the way towards true PROGRESS even while facing critique and hardship. And to these ladies and the author of this post for bringing deserved national attention to it.

[Steamboater]

08:24 AM on 06/05/2010

If these actresses want plastic bags banned fine; they'are a pain in the @ss, but they should now pay for the paper bags everyone is forced to use when shopping. Whereas before, you could get paper bags free on request rather than the plastic ones supermarke­ts had to pay for, now these markets won't have to buy plastic bags and paper bags have to cost us! The least supermarke­ts can do is provide boxes from products already on shelves as Costco does.

[TarheelinLA]

04:55 PM on 06/05/2010

Paperbags are a tax on the environmen­t as well Steamboat - the ink and energy used to make them not to mention the trees needed. The goal should be to eliminate any disposable bags, and this law works towards that.

[Wasp35]

04:01 AM on 06/05/2010

It's easy to see how out of touch California­'s representa­tives are when this is the kind of legislatio­n they are spending their time on. Unemployme­nt in California is presently at 12.6 percent. I'm sure this doesn't concern these actresses because according to IMDB.com, each of them have at least two movie projects in production­. The story doesn't mention it but AB 1998 would require shoppers who don’t bring their own bags to the store to purchase paper bags "made of at least 40 percent recycled material or buy reusable totes." That provision can be boiled down to three words: Made In China.