Californians to vote on plastic bag ban

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – A trade group has turned in enough signatures to qualify a referendum on California’s plastic bag ban law, suspending implementation of the nation’s first statewide ban until voters weigh in on the November 2016 ballot, state elections officials said Tuesday.

The plastic bag manufacturing trade group American Progressive Bag Alliance had 555,000 of the roughly 505,000 valid signatures needed to qualify the referendum after a random sample of the signatures, said Bill Mabie, chief deputy for Secretary of State Alex Padilla. The group had submitted more than 800,000 at the end of last year.

Supporters of the statewide ban criticized manufacturers for spending millions on the referendum campaign.

Associated PRess