Victory for ChicoBag! YAY!

Source

Bag Wars | Plastic Bag Giants Superbag and Advance Poly Split from 

Hilex Poly, Drop Out of Lawsuit Against ChicoBag

Hilex Poly, standing alone, settles case with ChicoBag and agrees to change position on windblown litter and recycling rates.

Chico, Calif. – The ChicoBag Company, a reusable bag company, has announced today that the lawsuit filed against it by Hilex Poly Company, LLC, Superbag Operating, LTD., and Advance Polybag, Inc. – three of the largest domestic manufacturers of disposable single-use plastic bags – has ended. The plastic bag giants, which have also sued municipalities over bag bans or fees, had initiated the suit against ChicoBag alleging that the company’s “Learn the Facts” page, (which contains widely accepted third party statistics regarding the impact of single-use plastic bags on the environment) was false and misleading, and had resulted in ‘irreparable harm’ to their companies. When ChicoBag challenged these three plastic bag companies to back up their allegations and asked for the true recycling rate for plastic bags among other things, Superbag and Advance Polybag provided little in response and subsequently dropped out of the case. Hilex Poly, the lone plaintiff without the support of its peers, agreed to settle the case the trio had brought against ChicoBag.

Rest rest of the article HERE.

On this same topic from 5 Gyres Blog:

For all the money and PR spin that industry spent trying to hurt a little guy, they ended up shooting themselves in the foot with an RPG, and I think the preliminary ruling in Marin, California earlier this week by Judge Lynn Duryee sums up how industry spin efforts are going:

As the county points out in its opposition, "In the pantheon of lost causes, defending the plastic grocery bag would seem to be right up there with supporting smoking on planes or the murder of puppies. The ubiquitous thin white bag has moved squarely beyond eyesore into the realm of public nuisance, a symbol of waste and excess and the incremental destruction of nature." In jurisdictions with a marine environment, such as Marin, plastic bags are especially damaging to the environment. Plastic bags have no recycling market. It takes 500 years for them to decompose. And they have created a major solid waste issue for Marin. It was therefore a reasonable legislative and regulatory choice for Marin County, after years of study, to ban plastic bags while imposing a fee on paper bags. Such a regulation assures "the maintenance, restoration, enhancement or protection of the environment" which also does not have a "reasonable probability of a significant effect on the environment due unusual circumstances" In reviewing the County's legislative actions, the court finds no abuse of discretion. The count appropriately concluded that the ordinance is exempt pursuant to Guidelines sections 15307 and 15308.

Judge Lynn Duryee is one of my new favorite people! Teresa