Compostable in Seattle: The Seattle City Council unanimously approved a ban on green- and brown-tinted non-compostable bags. The City says those bags are misleading and contaminate the organics stream.
Bills signed: California Gov. Jerry Brown signed bills requiring beverage brands to report their recycled plastics use and extending plastics recycling subsidies for one year. Brown on Sept. 30 approved Assembly Bill 2530, which mandates reporting of post-consumer PET usage by drink makers. On Sept. 22, he approved Assembly Bill 1005, which extends the Plastic Market Development Payment program until Jan. 1, 2018.
Bag ban passes: The governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands signed a plastic bag ban into law, according to the St. Croix Source. The ban goes into effect Jan. 1. It doesn’t include plastic bags used for wrapping food.
Growing concern: An aerial survey over part of the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii known for massive amounts of debris shows there is more plastic and waste in the ocean than first thought, according to plasteurope.com. The research is part of a bigger cleanup project, which is supposed to start in the next four years.
A better bag: Plastics News writes about a California company that is increasing the amount of post-consumer resin in its plastic bags, particularly post-consumer PE. Roplast is also developing a thicker, reusable plastic bag.
