Senate Environmental Quality Committee Approves Senator Padilla’s Legislation to Protect Marine Wildlife and Reduce Litter By Requiring Bottle Manufacturers Tether Caps to Bottles
SACRAMENTO – Today, the Senate Environmental Quality Committee approved Senate Bill 45 by Senator Steve Padilla (D-San Diego). The bill requires plastic beverage container manufacturers to tether caps to bottles by 2027, as is the law in the European Union.
Single-use plastic caps are easily separated from bottles reducing their likelihood of being recycled, and increasing their likelihood of becoming litter. With more than 14 billion plastic beverage containers and plastic caps generated in California annually, there are billions of opportunities for caps to fall out of the waste stream and become harmful liter. As a result, California Coastal Commission’s Cleanup day data has bottle caps listed as the third most common litter item collected on California beaches since 1988.
Across the state and the world, beaches are full of these pieces of plastic that end up choking marine life and polluting waterways. Wildlife can often mistake plastic for food. These plastics can absorb pollutants in the water, which then can leech into the organism that eats them. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, lab studies have even shown chemicals in plastics may delay an animal’s development, cause problems with reproduction, and even make it difficult for them to fight off disease. However, animal contamination is not where the harms of plastic pollution end. Eventually, the larger plastics are broken down and finds their way into the food chain in the form of microplastics.
There are studies that estimate the average person can eat, drink or breathe between 78,000 and 211,000 microplastic particles every year. Recently, a study in the New England Journal of Medicine found medical patients with high higher levels of microplastics were at a greater risk of a heart attack, a stroke or even death.
“We must address the growing plastic waste found on our shores not just for the sake of healthier oceans, but the sake of the health of Californians as well,” said Senator Padilla. “Bottle-tethering is a simple change manufactures can make to reduce the mountains of plastic waste polluting our beaches, rivers, and oceans.”
SB 45 would build off what some California manufactures are already doing and require plastic beverage containers less than three liters to have an attached bottle cap by 2027. Plastic beverage containers with a recycling rate greater than 70 percent will have an additional year—until 2028—to comply.
Senate Bill 45 is supported by a broad coalition of environmental justice and community organizations.
“California is following the simple logic of ‘if it stays attached, it gets recycled.’” said Mark Murray, executive director of the environmental group Californians Against Waste. “With over 16,600 tons of plastic caps littered or landfilled annually, SB 45 is a no-brainer for tackling waste, protecting wildlife, and keeping our communities clean."
“Last year alone, Surfrider volunteers have cleaned up nearly 30,000 plastic bottle caps along our nation’s coast,” said Jennifer Savage, California Policy Associate Director, Surfrider Foundation. “They are the silent scourge of our beaches, ranking among the top five most littered items year after year. SB 45 is our chance to turn the tide on this preventable pollution—keeping caps where they belong: on bottles and out of the ocean.”
Senate Bill 45 passed the Senate Environmental Quality Committee by a vote of 5 to 2 and now heads to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
To read more about SB 45 and plastic bottle caps, click here.
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Steve Padilla represents the 18th Senate District, which includes the communities of Chula Vista, the Coachella Valley, Imperial Beach, the Imperial Valley, National City, and San Diego. Prior to his election to the Senate in 2022, Senator Padilla was the first person of color ever elected to city office in Chula Vista, the first Latino Mayor, and the first openly LGBT person to serve or be elected to city office. Website of Senator Steve Padilla: https://sd18.senate.ca.gov/