Paper or Paper?

Katy Perry’s plastic bags won’t be drifting through the California wind much longer.

Governor Newsom (D) signed a new law banning all plastic grocery bags by 2026, requiring shoppers to bring reusables or embrace paper. It follows the state’s 2014 law banning single-use plastic bags, which inadvertently led to Golden Staters using more plastic waste––grocers switched to thicker plastic bags which weren’t effectively reduced, reused, or recycled.

It’s part of a larger war on plastic.

California is suing ExxonMobil, saying it “falsely promoted all plastic as recyclable, when in fact the vast majority…cannot be.” The lawsuit demands the oil giant pay for the plastic pollution-inflicted harm on California. Exxon says three fingers are pointing back at California officials, who’ve known about the state’s ineffective recycling programs for decades but are now seeking “to blame others.”

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Verse to consider while thinking about the best way to balance the health of the earth and the needs of humanity… “Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.… [He] took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it.”
Genesis 2:7, 15 (CSB) (read full passage)