ACC Statement on California Ballot Initiative Withdrawal
WASHINGTON (June 30, 2022) — Today the anti-plastics California ballot initiative was withdrawn and Governor Newsom signed SB 54 into law. The following statement may be attributed to Joshua Baca, vice president of plastics at the American Chemistry Council (ACC).
ACC is pleased that the anti-plastics ballot initiative in California has been withdrawn by the petitioners and SB 54 was signed into law by Governor Newsom.
Negotiating SB 54 over the last 18 months has not been an easy process. We appreciate the hard work of Senator Ben Allen and his staff to get us to this resolution. The law is not perfect, as we outlined in our previous statement.
However, SB 54 is a better outcome than the withdrawn anti-plastics ballot initiative. Had that initiative passed it would have cost Californians an estimated $9 billion dollars annually but only invest approximately 30% of that to improve recycling in the state.
Now we will focus on working with lawmakers, regulators, and other stakeholders to help ensure the implementation of SB 54 matches its intent: eliminating plastic waste and improving plastics circularity, while minimizing costs on Californians.
Petitioners of the ballot initiative released a statement yesterday inaccurately questioning our intent to work collaboratively on the implementation of SB 54. Nobody got everything they wanted in SB 54, but we remain steadfast in our belief that all stakeholders can do more to benefit California by working on constructive solutions rather than attacking each other. We want to be a partner in sustainability so society can retain the benefits plastics provide to our modern lives while ending plastic waste in our environment.
We believe plastics belong in our economy in a sustainable manner and out of the environment by accelerating circularity.
