Once a standard question to expect towards the end of any trip to the grocery store, the decision to choose “paper or plastic” will be a thing of the past in one state in about 15 months.
A new law taking effect on January 1, 2026, in California will ban the use of plastic shopping bags in the state.
Sen. Catherine Blakespear, who helped author the bill, said in a statement that this new legislation is meant to add support to a previous ban on single-use bags “enacted 10 years ago that allowed stores to sell customers thicker plastic carryout bags that were considered reusable and met certain recyclability standards.”
“The truth is almost none of those bags are reused or recycled, and they end up in landfills or polluting the environment,” Blakespear added.
Blakespear cited research that determined “the amount of grocery and merchandise bags disposed by Californians grew from 147,038 tons, or roughly 8 pounds per person, in 2004 to 231,072 tons, or roughly 11 pounds per person, in 2021.”
Not everyone heralded the new law as a win though.
“This flawed bill is similar to legislation in New Jersey, Canada and other regions that has resulted in the widespread use of imported non-recyclable plastic-cloth bags,” American Recyclable Plastic Bag Alliance executive director Erin Hass told the Los Angeles Times.
The new ban was signed into law Sunday by Gov. Gavin Newsom.