States push back as California’s plastics law faces broad legal challenge

Seventeen states led by Nebraska’s attorney general sue California to block SB 54, the state’s producer-responsibility plastics law aimed at reducing single-use plastics by 2032, arguing it oversteps state boundaries and imposes costs on out-of-state businesses via a private regulator; environmental groups separately challenge the final regulations for loopholes and allowed recycling tech; Oregon has a similar case with enforcement blocked; enforcement began May 1, 2026, highlighting a major test of interstate limits on state environmental policy.