PRESS RELEASE: American Progressive Bag Alliance Releases New Ad Targeting SB 270 as California Job
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Molly Pacala
Phone: 212-819-4869
AMERICAN PROGRESSIVE BAG ALLIANCE RELEASES NEW AD TARGETING SB 270 AS CALIFORNIA JOB KILLER
AD FEATURES SOME OF THE 2,000 CALIFORNIANS WHO COULD LOSE THEIR JOBS IF SB 270 PASSES
SACRAMENTO – The American Progressive Bag Alliance (APBA) today launched a new television ad highlighting the negative impact SB 270 would have on the nearly 2,000 workers in the California bag manufacturing industry. SB 270 seeks to ban 100 percent recyclable, multi-use plastic retail bags, and impose a minimum 10-cent fee on paper and thicker plastic bags. All fees would be kept as profit by grocers, instead of supporting any public purpose.
“Senator Padilla continues to mislead Californians with claims that his terrible bill won’t kill California jobs and is only opposed by out of state companies,” said Lee Califf, Executive Director of the APBA. “This ad features real workers from one of the many California-based bag manufacturing plants that stand in firm opposition to SB 270, along with a long list of other stakeholders. Senator Padilla can keep trying to sell this dirty deal to the legislature, but he can’t continue to lie about the fact that hardworking Californians will lose their jobs as a result of this scam.”
The release of the new ad titled, “Portraits,” comes on the heels of a recent legislative outreach visit to the State Capitol by representatives and workers from eight California plastic bag manufacturing and distribution companies. The delegation included representatives and workers from Spectrum Bags in Cerritos; E & A Paper and Plastics in Whittier; Dura Bag in Tustin; Elkay Plastics in Commerce; Sigma Plastics in La Puente; Marantz and Associates in Vernon; Metro Poly Bag in San Leandro; and Crown Poly in Huntington Park. During the day-long event, the delegation delivered more than 1,000 SB 270 opposition letters signed by industry workers to Sen. Padilla. Sen. Padilla could not personally accept delivery of the letters due to his attending a mandatory Senate ethics training session.
The new ad will begin airing Monday, May 19th on television and online in Sacramento and targeted regions around the state. The campaign will aim to educate California citizens on the negative consequences of SB 270, namely:
- SB 270 threatens nearly 2,000 well-paying California jobs in the plastic bag manufacturing & recycling industry.
- SB 270 would ban 100% recyclable, multi-use plastic retail bags made in California in favor of alternatives that use more water in production and put more carbon in the air.
- SB 270 represents a government-sponsored, billion-dollar transfer of wealth from working families to grocers in the form of fees on paper and thicker plastic bags; no money collected from bag fees will be used for environmental programs or for any public purpose.
To view the ad, go here.
“This particular ad is important because it reminds people that these are California jobs, held by California workers,” said Cathy Browne, General Manager of Crown Poly, an APBA member company with headquarters in Huntington Park, CA. “It’s wrong for legislators to deny these manufacturing jobs exist just to advance a misguided political agenda. SB 270 threatens the livelihoods of hardworking Californians and will cost taxpayers billions, without any meaningful environmental benefit.”
SB 270 passed out of the Assembly Natural Resources Committee on May 14 with a divided vote of 5-3, including one abstention. It will next be heard in the Assembly Appropriations Committee at a day and time to be determined.
The American Progressive Bag Alliance was founded in 2005 to represent the United States' plastic bag manufacturing and recycling sector, employing 30,800 workers in 349 communities across the nation. APBA promotes the responsible use, reuse, recycling and disposal of plastic bags and advocates for American-made plastic products as the best environmental choice at check out—for both retailers and consumers.
