Walmart, Target and Albertsons, along with other supermarket giants, are all making major changes to their California stores.
Governor Gavin Newsom has signed a law banning the use of plastic bags in such stores in the state.
The change will come into effect on January 1, 2026 and will affect all supermarkets.
Some grocery chains, such as Whole Foods, have already phased out plastic bags at their checkouts nationwide.
Consumers will be encouraged to bring their own bags to do their shopping, and those who don’t will be offered a paper alternative.
The new law only affects the plastic bags used at supermarket checkouts, not the plastic bags that contain products.
Californians will soon be offered paper bags at the supermarket checkout
The change comes after a decade of hard-fought campaigns by politicians trying to ban the bags.
A similar law was passed in California in 2014, but it only banned thin plastic bags, creating a loophole for stores to use thicker plastic.
Laura Deehan, director of Environment California, told local news that the bags actually created more waste because shoppers did not reuse or recycle the thicker bags.
“There was a sudden increase in the number of thicker plastic bags,” Deehan, who campaigned for the new law, told KABC-TV.
‘The supermarkets felt like they met the definition of a reusable plastic bag, but what we found is that they are not being reused at all.’
In 2004, Californians threw away an average of eight pounds of plastic annually, which would increase to 11 pounds annually by 2021, a state study found.
The law “clearly needed an overhaul,” Jenn Engstrom of the California Public Interest Research Group told the Associated Press.
“Plastic bags cause pollution in our environment and break down microplastics that contaminate our drinking water and threaten our health,” she explained.
“With the governor’s signature, California has finally banned plastic bags in grocery store checkouts once and for all.”
The law also redefined what can be considered a recyclable bag.
Gavin Newsom introduced the first U.S. plastic bag ban in 2007 when he was mayor of San Francisco
From 2028, only bags that consist of 50 percent or more recycled materials can be classified as recyclable.
Newsom has a long history of fighting the use of plastic bags, having introduced America’s first ban on plastic bags in 2007 when he was mayor of San Francisco.
Now, hundreds of cities in 28 states have implemented their own bans on plastic bags.
There is now some form of nationwide ban on plastic bags in twelve states, including New York.
Britain passed a law in 2015 forcing supermarkets to charge for plastic bags, leading to a 98 percent reduction in their use, according to the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Stores often face setbacks when they change packaging to reduce plastic use.
Earlier this year, Costco began selling its $4.99 rotisserie chickens in soft plastic bags instead of the traditional hard-shell plastic containers at its U.S. locations.
The redesign uses 75 percent less plastic and reduces the use of 17 million pounds of resin per year, according to Costco.
But shoppers quickly complained that the new design makes a mess in carts, cars and refrigerators because it allows meat juices to leak out.