A coalition of farming, forestry, restaurant and packaging organizations are suing California over its Truth in Recycling law, arguing it violates their right to free speech.<\/p>\n
The industry trade groups, which include the Dairy Institute of California, the Flexible Packaging Assn. and the Western Growers Assn., filed their suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
They argue that Senate Bill 343, which governs the use of the \u201cchasing arrows\u201d recycling symbol in California, operates as \u201cgovernment-imposed censorship,\u201d according to a news release issued by a public affairs firm contracted by the group. The California law says only truly recyclable products may carry the label. <\/p>\n
The businesses say only when \u201cthe material satisfies rigid and arbitrary regulatory criteria set by the state\u201d are they able to inform consumers their packaging is recyclable.<\/p>\n
They are also seeking a preliminary injunction to block enforcement of the law while the challenge proceeds through the court.<\/p>\n
\u201cSB 343 forces dairy product manufacturers to remove vital recycling guidance from the very cartons Californians rely on every day,\u201d said Dairy Institute of California Executive Director Katie Davey, in the statement. \u201cThis law ignores the reality of our recycling infrastructure and unconstitutionally restricts our right to provide transparent recycling instructions to consumers. We are seeking to stop this policy before it leads to more waste and disrupts our ability to deliver milk to California families and schools.\u201d<\/p>\n
The bill was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2021 and went into effect in 2025. It prohibits manufacturers from using a \u201cchasing arrows\u201d symbol on products or materials that aren\u2019t actually being recycled in any meaningful way in California. <\/p>\n
In January, CalRecycle, the state\u2019s waste agency, issued a report showing that most single-use plastic materials in the state\u2019s waste stream were being recycled at levels below 10%. <\/p>\n
Even yogurt containers and margarine tubs \u2014 made of some of the most common plastic packaging materials, such as polypropylene \u2014 are being recycled at a rate of only 2% in the state, the report said. Only 5% of colored shampoo and detergent bottles, made from polyethylene, or #1 plastic, are getting recycled.<\/p>\n
Reports on abysmally low rates of recycling<\/a> for milk cartons<\/a> and polystyrene<\/a> had been widely shared even before that.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy would lying to consumers be protected speech under the 1st Amendment?\u201d said Nick Lapis, director of advocacy for Californians Against Waste. \u201cThe courts have repeatedly said that the government can regulate environmental claims to require honesty, and I don\u2019t see how this would be any different.\u201d<\/p>\n Plastic materials that can\u2019t be recycled are typically sent to landfills or sometimes shipped illegally overseas, where they are burned or end up in landfills, rivers and waterways there. <\/p>\n A report<\/a> by the Natural Resources Defense Council shows that nationwide, taxpayers, governments and businesses are spending between $9.8 billion and $13.3 billion per year cleaning up plastic litter, and almost $3 billion is spent by local governments on landfilling plastic. <\/p>\n According to one state analysis<\/a>, 2.9 million tons of single-use plastic and 171.4 billion single-use plastic components were sold, offered for sale or distributed in California in 2023.<\/p>\n Single-use plastics, and plastic waste more broadly, are considered a growing environmental and health problem.<\/a> In recent decades, plastic waste<\/a> has overwhelmed waterways and oceans<\/a>, sickening marine life and threatening human health<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe data has been clear for a long time now: Many products claimed to be \u2018recyclable\u2019 are not actually recyclable under real world conditions,\u201d said Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica), who authored the Truth in Recycling bill. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A coalition of farming, forestry, restaurant and packaging organizations are suing California over its Truth in Recycling law,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531627,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[2356,93532,238959,238960,5457,192,2420,238958,238961,238957,2853,79,52618,13109,62036,23100,134927],"class_list":["post-531626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-california","tag-california-law","tag-carton-californians","tag-chasing-arrow","tag-consumer","tag-environment","tag-government","tag-industry-group","tag-packaging-organization","tag-recycling-law","tag-report","tag-science","tag-single-use-plastic","tag-state","tag-symbol","tag-truth","tag-waterway"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}