The California State Senate has defeated a bill to ban single-use plastic bags statewide — the third time since 2010 the bill has failed to win passage.
The proposed law would have banned plastic bags from large retail stores by 2015 and from smaller stores by 2016. The measure failed on a vote of 18-17, three short of the majority needed for passage.
Opponents said the bill would cost 2,000 jobs in the plastics industry in California, most of them in working-class communities.
