Paper or paper? In California, shoppers will have only one bag option at the checkout line starting in 2026.
A decade ago, California became the first U.S. state to ban single-use plastic bags, the flimsy sacks that regularly blew into waterways, littered streets and collected in landfills. The prohibition, in the nation’s most populous state, was considered a turning point in the effort to reduce plastic waste.
But the move backfired in a way that few supporters expected. Californians in 2021 actually tossed nearly 50 percent more plastic bags, by weight, than when the law first passed in 2014, according to data from CalRecycle, California’s recycling agency.
A loophole in the initial ban allowed retailers to provide thick-walled plastic bags and charge 10 cents a piece for them. Though technically reusable and recyclable, the heavier-duty sacks still ended up in many trash cans after a shopping trip.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation on Sunday banning the sale at grocery checkouts of all plastic bags, regardless of thickness. The only option for customers who lack their own reusable shopping bags will be buying paper bags for 10 cents each.
“We deserve a cleaner future for our communities, our children and our earth,” said Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, a Democratic assemblywoman and co-author of the bill, in a statement. “It’s time for us to get rid of these plastic bags and continue to move forward with a more pollution-free environment.”
Plastic bags are typically used for 12 minutes before being discarded, according to the California Public Interest Research Group, a consumer advocacy group. But those bags live in oceans and landfills for hundreds of years, and can contaminate drinking water and food in the form of microplastics.
California has been on the forefront of plastic bag bans. In 2007, Mr. Newsom, as mayor of San Francisco, signed a law that made the city the first in the nation to ban plastic bags in grocery stores. Many other cities followed suit, including Los Angeles, San Jose and Berkeley, and the laws effectively reduced plastic waste, said Mark Murray, executive director of Californians Against Waste, an environmental group.
But around 2016, stores began to offer thicker plastic bags that were technically reusable. During the pandemic, “they just kind of exploded,” Mr. Murray said, as people feared that reusable bags could spread the Covid-19 virus.
Though California’s law dramatically reduced the total number of plastic bags being distributed, the increased thickness of the bags offered at checkout counters meant that more plastic ended up in the trash. In 2021, Californians discarded 5.89 tons of plastic bags per 1,000 people, compared with 4.08 tons of plastic bags per 1,000 people in 2014, according to an analysis by CalPIRG.
Several other states enacted plastic bag bans in the past decade, and many tried to learn from California’s mistakes. Environmentalists in New York, which banned plastic bags at most store checkouts in 2020, successfully blocked a provision that would have allowed stores to provide thicker plastic bags.
Plastic bag bans in both Rhode Island and Colorado went into effect at the beginning of this year, and both specified that any bags sold as reusable must have stitched handles, disqualifying the plastic bags that have predominated in California.
Under California’s new law, stores can still sell reusable tote bags, but not at the checkout counter. There, only paper bags will be offered.
Erin Hass, director of the American Recyclable Plastic Bag Alliance, a manufacturers group, said that the new California law would reduce jobs and tax revenues in the state. She also said that paper bags were far less convenient for people who rely on public transportation and shoppers who can’t afford a reusable tote bag.
“California is once again out of touch with reality,” Ms. Hass said in an email, adding that the plastic bags currently sold in California were recyclable.
Mr. Murray, with Californians Against Waste, said that although the bags could be recycled, virtually none were. The plastics industry has not provided a way for consumers to recycle the bags, he said, and any attempts to create such a system have “completely failed.” Most curbside recycling programs have not accepted plastic bags because they can jam the equipment.
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