SACRAMENTO, California — SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — “Paper or plastic” will no longer be a choice at California grocery store checkout lines under a new law signed Sunday by Gov. Gavin Newsom that bans all plastic grocery bags.
In California, thin plastic shopping bags were already banned in supermarkets and other stores, but consumers could buy bags made of thicker plastic, which would 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.
Sen. Catherine Blakespear, one of the bill’s proponents, said people aren’t reusing or recycling plastic bags. She pointed to a state study that found the amount of plastic grocery bags thrown away per person grew from 8 pounds (3.6 kilograms) per year in 2004 to 11 pounds (5 kilograms) per year in 2021.
Blakespear, a Democrat from Encinitas, said the previous plastic bag ban, passed a decade ago, did not reduce overall plastic use.
“We are literally suffocating our planet with plastic waste,” she said in February.
The environmental nonprofit praised Newsom for signing the bill into law and “protecting California’s coastline, marine life and communities from single-use plastic shopping bags.”
Christy Leavitt, director of Oceana’s plastics campaign, said Sunday that the new ban on single-use plastic bags at grocery store checkout lines “reaffirms California as a leader in tackling the global plastic pollution crisis.”
According to the environmental organization Environment America Research, twelve states, including California, already have some sort of statewide ban on plastic bags. & Policy Center. Hundreds of cities in 28 states also have their own plastic bag bans.
The California Legislature passed a statewide ban on plastic bags in 2014. The law was later ratified by voters in a 2016 referendum.
The California Public Interest Research Group reported Sunday that the new law finally fulfills the intent of the original plastic bag ban.
“Plastic bags pollute our environment and break down into microplastics that contaminate our drinking water and threaten our health,” said Jenn Engstrom, executive director of the group. “Californians voted to ban plastic shopping bags in our state nearly a decade ago, but the law clearly needed an overhaul. With the governor’s signature, California has finally banned plastic bags at grocery store checkout lines once and for all.”
As mayor of San Francisco in 2007, Newsom signed the nation’s first plastic bag ban.