() –– “Paper or plastic bag?” That will no longer be a question at California grocery checkouts under a new law signed Sunday by Gov. Gavin Newsom banning all plastic shopping bags.
California had already banned thin plastic bags in supermarkets and other stores, but consumers could buy bags made from thicker plastic that was supposed to make them reusable and recyclable.
The new measure, approved by state lawmakers last month, bans all plastic shopping bags starting in 2026. Consumers who don’t bring their own bags will now simply be asked if they want a paper bag.
State Sen. Catherine Blakespear, one of the bill’s sponsors, said people weren’t reusing or recycling any plastic bags. She even pointed to a state study that found the number of plastic shopping bags thrown away per person rose from 3.6 kilograms per year in 2004 to 5 kilograms per year in 2021.
Democrat Blakespear said the previous bag ban passed a decade ago did not reduce overall plastic use.
“We are literally drowning our planet with plastic waste,” he said in February.
Oceana, a nonprofit environmental organization, applauded Newsom for signing the bill and “protecting California’s coastline, marine life and communities from single-use plastic grocery bags.”
Christy Leavitt, director of Oceana’s plastics campaign, said Sunday that the new ban on single-use plastic bags at grocery checkouts “solidifies California as a leader in the fight against the global plastic pollution crisis.”
Twelve states, including California, have already implemented some form of statewide ban on plastic bags, according to the environmental advocacy group Environment America Research & Policy Center. Hundreds of cities in 28 states have also imposed their own plastic bag bans.
The California Legislature passed its statewide ban on plastic bags in 2014. The law was later confirmed by voters in a referendum in 2016.
The California Public Interest Research Group said Sunday that the new law finally fulfills the intent of the original bag ban.
“Plastic bags pollute our environment, breaking down into microplastics that contaminate our drinking water and threaten our health,” said group director Jenn Engstrom. “Californians voted to ban plastic shopping bags in our state nearly a decade ago, but the law clearly needed rewriting. With the governor’s signature, California has finally banned plastic bags at grocery checkouts once and for all.”
When he was mayor of San Francisco in 2007, Newsom signed the nation’s first plastic bag ban.
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