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Banning Plastic Straw by Straw: Why California needs a more harmonized approach to plastics management
Summary
This policy analysis examines Californias patchwork of local plastic product bans and argues for a more harmonized statewide approach to plastics management. Researchers found that inconsistent local ordinances create compliance challenges for businesses and fail to address plastics as a systemic problem. The paper recommends state-level standardization to more effectively reduce plastic pollution including microplastics.
Over 150 local communities in California have implemented plastic product bans as a way to decrease stress on landfills, reduce non-recyclable materials, and manage litter. Plastic product bans such as plastic bags, polystyrene, or single-use plastics, are used to address both local (e.g. litter reduction or community aesthetics), and global (e.g. microplastic pollution or wildlife entanglement) problematizations of plastic waste. As an environmental leader within the United States, California is positioned to lead other states towards effective policy implementation to mitigate the effects of plastic waste and pollution. However, local agencies bear the burden of collecting, sorting, and sometimes, selling recyclables in a rapidly closing global market. A clear consensus on policy goals is needed to understand if plastic bans are a successful means of solving the plastic pollution and waste crisis in the State. This thesis aims to understand the motivations and anticipated effects of local plastic bans in California in order to understand and analyze the justification for a statewide, harmonized plastics strategy. Through the use of in-depth interviews and policy document analysis this qualitative study uses policy diffusion theories to outline the motivations for local agencies to implement bans, thematic content analysis to determine anticipated effects, and policy harmonization theory to create a framework for a California “plastics playbook” which outlines recommended actions on a State level to more effectively address plastic waste and pollution.