Another bill, SB 676, which the Assembly passed on Tuesday, empowers cities and counties to ban or restrict the installation of artificial turf on residential properties — something they were prevented from doing under previous legislation that was adopted in 2015.
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California legislators have passed a bill that aims to close a long-standing loophole in the state’s water laws: Until now, regulators haven’t had clear authority to investigate the water rights of some of the biggest water users.
We think this is the job for Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica), who has been the Legislature’s leading champion for reducing plastic waste in recent years and is also dismayed by the “woefully underperforming” bag ban.
Under California’s new truth-in-labeling law, polypropylene — and all other plastics — will qualify as recyclable only if two criteria are met: 60 percent of Californians have access to a recycler that accepts and sorts the material, and 60 percent of the state’s recyclers have access to a facility that reprocesses it.
He brought up some incremental changes that could improve it, including a bill proposed by state Sen.
AB 598 was co-authored by Assemblyman Richard Bloom and Senator Ben Allen, both Democrats from Santa Monica, who were trying to succeed where five previous attempts over the years had failed. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had vetoed similar bills three times - in 2004, 2006 and 2007.
For instance, last summer, California lawmakers passed SB 54, which requires that by 2032, 100% of packaging in the state must be recyclable or compostable; plastic packaging must be reduced by 25%; and 65% of all single-use plastics must be recycled.
