On Tuesday, a bill that would ban plastic gift cards in California moved forward where it would prohibit the distribution of plastic gift carts.
The bill, introduced by Senator Monique Limón, aims to to transition the state away from the use of plastic gift cards to more environmentally sustainable gift card options (SB 728).
“My bill #SB728 will speed up CA’s transition away from the use of plastic gift cards to more environmentally friendly gift card options,” said Limon in a Tweet.
According to Senate Bill 728:
SB 728, as amended, Limón. Plastic gift cards: prohibition.
Existing law regulates the manufacture, sale, and disposal of various plastic products, including, but not limited to, single-use foodware accessories, single-use carryout bags, trash bags, packaging containers, and microbeads.
This bill would prohibit, beginning January 1, 2027, a retailer from selling, offering for sale, or distributing plastic gift cards, except those that are both usable with multiple unaffiliated sellers of goods and that have the expiration date, if any, printed on the card. The bill would authorize a retailer to continue to sell, offer for sale, or distribute an existing stock of plastic gift cards until January 1, 2028, as specified. The bill would authorize various entities to enforce these provisions, and would impose specified civil penalties for violations of these provisions. The bill would specify that its provisions do not apply to a plastic card used to pay public transit fares.
The bill passed the State Assembly in a 53-18 vote. On May 22, the State Senate passed the bill in a 31-9 vote.
Editors Note
Back in May, Mastercard announced it is accelerating efforts to remove first–use, PVC plastics from payment cards on its network by 2028. This initiative further reinforces the company’s sustainability commitments and scales the accessibility of more sustainable card offerings for consumers seeking a way to reduce the environmental impact of their wallet.
“The world has a plastic problem. Solving it will be a whole-of-society task, yet efforts are often taken in isolation or without coordination,” said Sandeep Malhotra, Executive Vice President, Products & Innovation, Asia Pacific, Mastercard. With this sustainable cards effort, Mastercard is bringing its global network of banks, financial institutions and consumers – who collectively hold more than 3 billion Mastercard cards – together to build a greener payments sector through collaboration and partnership.”
3 comments
This is so completely dumb. I agree we must reduce the use of plastics. But work on problems where large amounts of plastic are being used, and not on fringe applications like gift cards or soda straws. Another example of democrats only trying to grand stand with bullshit. Absolutely zero depth.
It amazes me how CA politicians persist in passing bills that either are senseless and B***S**T such as this one -or- are unenforceable. That leads to an opinion from most of us that these bills represent efforts that do little more than piss everyone off and do not amount to much except to further the career of CA politicians to prove they did something in office, anything, please, as they fear getting voted out!
One of the blaring failures with this bill is that its impact will be trivial when you compare other states and countries where this is not even a consideration. As a famous writer once said, “much ado about nothing”.
Instead of wasting tax payer time and effort on on petty B***S**T, CA politicians need to focus on a new problem that is growing: people are leaving CA because of cost of living. Up to this point, CA politicians are burying their heads in the sand on this exodus, which of course will solve exactly nothing!
They should introduce a bill that bans trash. That will solve the problem entirely.
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