California’s new packaging law recently went into effect and farmers are saying they won’t be able to adapt and food will end up being wasted or spoiling
The law is SB 54, ‘The Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act’
“Groceries in California are about to get more expensive, and in some cases, your favorite fresh produce may not be there at all. — For fresh produce, packaging isn't optional. Plastic helps keep food safe, fresh, and from going to waste — Look, we all want more sustainable packaging, but for everyday items like berries, bagged salads, ready-to-eat produce, there aren't real scalable alternatives yet. And it could take 5 to 10 years to get there, or longer”
“So when mandates move faster than technology, prices go up, shelf life drops, and some products just won't pencil out”
Here’s what the new law mandates, SB 54 Requires by 2032:
- 25% reduction in single-use plastic packaging and food service ware by weight
- 100% of single-use packaging and plastic food service ware must be recyclable or compostable.
- 65% recycling rate for the remaining single-use plastic packaging
Producers, brands, manufacturers must join a Producer Responsibility Organization and pay fees. This is including $500 million per year to a state fund for pollution mitigation and cleanup, totaling $5 billion over 10 years), and fund collection and recycling infrastructure
I feel like some soccer fans of other countries are missing a lot of context in their annoyance with American confidence about the World Cup.
The vast majority of us don’t actually think we’re gonna win the whole thing. Even those of us who know very little about soccer know enough to understand our small chances.
But that doesn’t matter. You’re talking about a nation built on a steady diet of believing anything’s possible.
We don’t care about odds. We care about winning. And in service to that mindset, we are more than happy to buy into a suspension of logic and rational thinking.
The thought of being in a competition and not believing we can win it, even in defiance of odds, is incomprehensible to us.
But moreover, what do we lose in believing we can win in a sport that has a mere of fraction of our emotional investment in other sports?
Not a damn thing. We’ve already exceeded our own expectations, so why not push for more?