Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers, leading the coalition, said the law negatively impacts businesses and consumers nationwide.
Attorneys general from 17 states and a national trade group have sued California over its landmark law requiring companies to reduce single-use plastic packaging and make it recyclable or compostable.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, challenges Senate Bill 54, the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act. The measure, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2022, holds producers responsible for the collection, recycling and disposal costs of their packaging.
Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers, leading the coalition, said the law negatively impacts businesses and consumers nationwide.
The other states joining the lawsuit are Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and West Virginia. The National Association of Wholesale-Distributors is also a plaintiff.
State Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica), the bill’s author, defended the law.
“For decades, producers have been able to shift costs onto ratepayers and escape accountability for flooding our planet and waste infrastructure with unsustainable levels of plastic pollution,” Allen said in a statement. “This lawsuit challenges California’s right to protect residents from rising waste disposal costs and a growing public health crisis.”
The law requires producers of single-use packaging and plastic food service ware to join a producer responsibility organization and meet specific reduction and recycling targets. By 2032, at least 65% of plastic covered material must be recycled.
