Poll reveals bipartisan support for different approach to plastic bags in California

New York-based market research company John Zogby Strategies conducted a poll of 802 likely California voters, finding that 60 percent oppose AB 2236 and SB 1053—two bills pending in the state legislature that would eliminate recyclable plastic film grocery bags.

According to the Responsible Recycling Alliance (AAS), respondents instead support a better approach to the current legislative proposals that would ban plastic film grocery bags and hinder the industry’s ability to recycle them.

Poll participants support shifting responsibility to the plastic film recyclers and reusable plastic film grocery bag recyclers by integrating companies into the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Program created in 2022 by SB 54.

RELATED: Plastic recyclers form Responsible Recycling Alliance

“We all agree with the paramount importance of the need to reduce, reuse and recycle plastic waste across California – and as the intensity of these results makes clear, there is strong bipartisan agreement that the sustainable solution Californians desire can be achieved with a simple amendment,” PreZero US Vice President of Public Affairs Roxanne Spiekerman says on behalf of the RRA. “As currently written, AB 2236 and its companion SB 1053 are anti-environmental bills. With their elimination of reusable plastic film grocery bags, these bills narrow consumer choice to two options: either nonrecyclable, imported canvas and sewn poly-woven or nonwoven polypropylene bags or paper bags, both of which carry with them negative environmental challenges when compared to plastic film bags. Coupled with the loss of thousands of jobs and burdening Californians with an even higher grocery bill when they’re forced to pay more for bags, the impact of these bills will resonate across the state for years to come.”

With similar results across various political parties, ages and other demographics, the poll found that California voters become even more opposed to the current legislation as they learn more about it. Specifically, the poll found that Californians are: 

• 56 percent less likely to support the current proposal after learning the imported canvas and sewn poly-woven or nonwoven polypropylene bags can never be recycled and can only be disposed of in a landfill, and 37 percent of them much less likely to support;
• 51 percent less likely to support the current proposal after learning it would result in a worse carbon footprint due to what is required to make and recycle paper bags, and 32 percent much less likely to support;
• 49 percent less likely to support the current proposal after learning it would hurt the environment more than it helps, and 34 percent much less likely to support; and
• 53 percent less likely to support the current proposal after learning that consumers will have to pay more for imported canvas and sewn polypropylene bags or paper bags, and 33 percent much less likely to support. 

“Together, these proposals will hit those who can’t afford it the hardest,” Spiekerman says. “Middle- and lower-income Californians are among the most prevalent users of the current 10 cent plastic bags. Indeed, 77 percent of purchasers have annual incomes of less than $150,000, and 52 percent make less than $80,000 a year. While these groups are also the most likely to reuse these bags, these bills would take away this option. Small grocers will have to purchase paper bags at close to cost as well.”

Results showed that 85 percent of those surveyed use plastic film bags, with 94 percent reusing them for a variety of purposes, including:

• 66 percent use for another trip to the grocery store;
• 51 percent use to store things around the house;
• 49 percent use to carry dirty shoes and soiled clothing;
• 47 percent us as an easy way to collect plastics dropped off for recycling; and
• 44 use for in-car garbage bags.