Will Newsom hand Californians the bill for plastic pollution?

Capitol Weekly welcomes Opinions on California public policy or politics. Please read our guidelines for opinion pieces before submitting an Op-Ed. Submissions that do not adhere to our guidelines will not be considered for publication. 

OPINION – A Financial decision is around the corner that will impact local governments, ratepayers, and our environment in a big way. CalRecycle is anticipated to finalize regulations any day aimed at implementing Senate Bill 54—the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act. But disappointingly, economic benefits owed to Californians through implementation of the state’s landmark plastic pollution prevention law won’t be realized if pending regulations are adopted as is. Currently, at the Governor’s direction, the latest regulations include massive industry giveaways that threaten to leave us holding the bill to deal with the single-use plastic waste industry floods into our everyday lives.

Plastic packaging is ubiquitous in American life, wrapping most products we purchase for use in our bathrooms and kitchens, children’s toys, and take-out food. And so is plastic pollution, with tons of single-use plastics ending up in our waterways, beaches, and now disturbingly, in our bodies and bloodstreams thanks to the scourge of microplastics. Many of these tiny plastic particles come from disposable packaging that is often used momentarily and then tossed away, like single-use plastic cutlery, coffee cups and lids, and the plastic wrapping that accompanies our online purchases.

The proliferation of plastic into all aspects of American life is due to many factors, but chief among them, the low cost: plastic is extremely cheap to produce and very versatile, so perfect for a variety of uses. But like many costs in our consumer-driven society, the low sticker price at the store doesn’t reflect the true cost of the damage that plastic does to society. The low cost is a mirage, with consumers, taxpayers, and local governments ultimately footing the final bill. These additional costs are not abstract; they include damage to human health, beaches, waterways, oceans, injury to wildlife, and huge landfill and recycling costs that are borne by everyone, except those responsible for producing this plastic waste. An additional 1 billion tons of plastic is projected to accumulate in municipal solid waste across the U.S. between 2025 and 2040, costing taxpayers nearly $37 billion annually to manage.

In 2022, California enacted SB 54 with the aim to correct this market failure by making producers pay for the costs of managing their plastic packaging and mitigating the pollution their products have caused, while also mandating cuts in the volume of single use plastic items produced and prohibiting incredibly toxic chemical recycling, in which plastic waste is primarily turned into dirty fuel. Only a market in which producers pay the full cost of their pollution meets the definition of a well-functioning market system; anything else is a de facto subsidy to corporate interests and plastic producers.

Think of it this way; if you were to dump a bunch of plastic waste on your neighbor’s yard, and this pollution clogged their swimming pool, made their dog sick, and cost them lots of money to clean up, who would be responsible for those costs? Certainly not your neighbor, and yet the California public is the “neighbor” in a state where over 3 million tons of plastic food ware and packaging was discarded in 2024.

Consumers have little to no options to avoid plastic, and it shouldn’t be up to individuals to rein in corporate pollution. That’s the role of government, and SB 54 is a smart law that gets the economics right. The state’s own analysis projects that the law will deliver $32 billion in net benefits – that’s $800 per Californian — and slash plastic waste by 1.9 billion pounds. It’s critical that as the regulations are finalized no major industrial sectors get special exemptions and dangerous chemical recycling is banned.

While it is unfortunate that Gov. Newsom interceded in the regulatory process and directed his agency to incorporate industry-requested changes unauthorized by the law, it’s not too late for him to ensure a level playing field ensuring fair competition among industry to sustainably innovate new forms of packing and delivery that meet our recycling and waste reduction goals. Otherwise, the bill will continue to fall unfairly on California consumers and ratepayers.

Dr. Jason Scorse directs the Center for the Blue Economy at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, CA.