How can California lead the U.S. in solving an ocean pollution crisis? One word: plastics

When I reminisce about the time I spent at the beach as a kid, I remember peering into tide pools and splashing in the cool water of the Pacific. Something I don’t remember — but that now seems inescapable — is plastic pollution, everywhere.

The difference is not my imagination. Global plastic production has nearly tripled in my lifetime. Plastics have reached every corner of the planet, from deep ocean trenches to mountaintops and even our lungs and bloodstreams.

Single-use plastics are especially pervasive. More than half the litter found on our beaches and waterways by the Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup over the past three decades was single-use plastic packaging and food ware.

I focused my graduate studies on novel ways to address this issue. In between weekend escapes to Monterey Bay and Santa Cruz, I spent hours in the lab analyzing whether certain bacteria could break down plastics. Could these tiny organisms help keep plastics off the shores and out of the Pacific?

Unfortunately, like many other researchers, I have concluded that there is no single solution to the ocean plastics crisis. The sheer volume of plastics is just too great. We need a multifaceted approach that includes using less plastic and improving recycling rates.

As the world’s No. 1 generator of plastic waste, the United States needs to make bold, holistic policy changes to combat the plastic pollution crisis we’ve helped create.

I am thrilled to say that California could lead the way. For the last six months, the Ocean Conservancy has been working with state legislators alongside other environmental and ocean advocates on a transformational bill to address plastic pollution. The draft of that legislation, Senate Bill 54, the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act, was made public by state Sen. Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica, last week. If passed, it would be the country’s single strongest effort to address the plastics crisis to date.

This landmark bill requires a 25% reduction in single-use plastic packaging and food ware by weight and count within 10 years. I crunched the numbers alongside other Ocean Conservancy scientists and found that this provision alone would eliminate 23 million tons of plastics from the state of California — nearly 26 times the weight of the Golden Gate Bridge.

The bill also paves the way for a growing reuse and refillables market; requires all single-use plastics to be recyclable or compostable; mandates that plastic producers reach a 65% recycling rate, more than six times the national level, by 2032; and holds all packaging producers accountable for the cost of managing the waste their products create. Additionally, the legislation provides hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to support the communities and ecosystems most affected by plastic pollution.

This bill would mean less plastic production and less plastic on our shelves, in our bodies and in our oceans.

California has a history of leading the United States in bold environmental legislation, and what happens in California can influence the nation and even the world. The state has the chance to do that now on one of the most pressing environmental issues facing our oceans today. I hope the Legislature seizes this opportunity.