New Bill Would Ban Toxins in Plastic Packaging by 2015

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published April 25, 2007 at 1:13 PM PDT

This story was published more than 17 years ago.

The California State Senate has passed a bill that aims to clean up our waterways. The legislation would ban certain chemicals from plastic packaging. KPBS reporter Ed Joyce has details.

The California State Senate has passed a bill that aims to clean up our waterways. The legislation would ban certain chemicals from plastic packaging. KPBS reporter Ed Joyce has details.

Think how many times you’ve seen plastic cups, cigarette lighters and other trash on the beach or floating in the water. Littering is a big part of the problem. What's in the plastic is also a problem. The bill passed by the senate would ban the use of certain toxic chemicals in plastic packaging by 2015. Dan Jacobson is with Environment California. He says plastic products need to change.

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Jacobson : It’s not going to be the kind of plastic that's made out of petroleum chemicals and that can stay around for hundreds of years and that leeches toxic chemicals. It's going to have to be a plastic that's made out of a sustainable form. It's going to have to be a plastic that's able to breakdown and to biodegrade easily. Or it's going to have to be a plastic that people can use over and over and over again.

The bill now heads to the State Assembly. Jacobson says if the bill passes the assembly it has a good chance at being signed by Governor Schwarzenegger.

Ed Joyce, KPBS News.

Ed Joyce

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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