California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a new law on Sunday banning plastic shopping bags altogether, eliminating the “paper or plastic” option at grocery store registers in the state.
California had already banned thin plastic shopping bags in supermarkets and other stores, but shoppers could buy bags made from thicker plastic that was supposed to be reusable and recyclable.
The new measure, approved by the state legislature last month, will ban all plastic shopping bags starting in 2026. From now on, customers who don’t bring their own bags will simply be asked if they need a paper bag.
State Sen. Katherine Breakspear, one of the bill’s sponsors, said people aren’t reusing or recycling plastic bags. She pointed to a state study that found the amount of plastic grocery bag waste per person has increased from 8 pounds (3.6 kilograms) per year in 2004 to 11 pounds (5 kilograms) per year in 2021.
Breakspear, a Democrat from Encinitas, said the previous plastic bag ban, passed 10 years ago, did not reduce overall plastic use.
“We are literally choking the planet with plastic waste,” she said in February.
Environmental nonprofit Oceana praised Governor Newsom for signing the bill, “protecting California’s coastlines, marine life and communities from single-use plastic shopping bags.”
Christy Leavitt, Oceana’s anti-plastic campaign director, said Sunday that banning single-use plastic bags at grocery store checkouts “solidifies California’s position as a leader in tackling the global plastic pollution crisis.”
Twelve states, including California, already have some form of statewide plastic bag ban in place, according to the Environment America Research & Policy Center, an environmental group, and hundreds of cities in 28 states have their own plastic bag bans.
The California State Legislature passed a statewide plastic bag ban in 2014. The law was then approved by voters in a 2016 referendum.
The California Public Interest Research Group said Sunday that the new law ultimately fulfills the intent of the original plastic bag ban.
“Plastic bags cause environmental pollution, break down into microplastics, contaminate drinking water and threaten our health,” said Jen Engstrom, the organization’s executive director. “Californians voted to ban plastic bags in our state nearly a decade ago, but this law clearly needed reworking. With the Governor’s signature, California has finally banned plastic bags entirely at grocery store checkouts.”
As mayor of San Francisco in 2007, Newsom signed the nation’s first plastic bag ban.
