Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

Like @TheTechnician27@lemmy.world said, this is closing a loophole that was in the original grocery bag reduction law.

We can't afford to think like this. Climate is such an unthinkably massive issue that we need all of it, and then some more, and then some more.

There is no project big enough that we don't need 50,000 more projects of equivalent scope to get things where they need to be.

California has been working toward legislation that reduces plastic in packaging. It's not as good as it should be, but it represents about as much departure from the status quo I think California can reasonably get when people raise so much fuss over even superfluous things like plastic straws and grocery bags (and because California is already really throwing around their weight here in compelling out-of-state producers to change their manufacturing). And this new law is just closing a loophole on a 2014 law that at worst was actively making things worse or at best was making the law fail to address the issue. This isn't "pandering"; it's addressing a real, ongoing, actual issue in a sensible way.

Yup. Logging industry, at least in the US, is remarkably renewable. I remember reading that we have significantly more trees than we did 100 years ago because we’ve improved logging methods. No more clear cutting for pulp or lumber, proper replanting, and age-tracking for proper harvest.

In other words, saying “don’t use paper, save a tree” is akin to saying “don’t eat fries, save a potato.”

Microplastic is stored in the balls

I know little to nothing about fishing on a commercial scale. What are viable alternatives to plastics in that industry?

In Austin we had a ban. The state overrode it a year later, but the damage was done...everyone realized how much easier it is to carry groceries in large tote bags that you can sling over your shoulder.

In my country (Jamaica) you either have to beg to use their old boxes from inventory or just carry it all out by hand if you forget your bags.

In France they didn't always have bags available, and if they did they were usually for sale and were reusable. Everyone just brought their own bags.

Canada works pretty well without them. If you forget your bags though you have to buy more.

For anyone wondering why a new law would target reusable bags as well, the phrasing of the old law basically encouraged stores to replace single use plastic bags with reusable plastic bags. Reusable bags use more plastic so they're sturdier and last longer, but they were treated as single use bags anyways so functionally we were just producing and subsequently wasting more plastic.

I haven't read this new law but hopefully it encourages or requires actually using paper bags or cardboard boxes or something if you don't have your own reusable bag. It would be a shame if it just kicks the can down the road again and people buy reusable bags in the checkout aisle that they throw away when they get home instead of keeping in the car.