Newsom Bans Plastic Shopping Bags at Grocery Stores in California
Starting January 1, 2028, the state will also define a recycled paper bag as “one with more than 50% recycled material.”
California has so many problems that Gov. Gavin Newsom decided to tackle…plastic bags.
No grocery store in California can offer plastic bags:
California had already banned thin plastic shopping bags at supermarkets and other stores, but shoppers could purchase bags made with a thicker plastic that purportedly made them reusable and recyclable.
The new measure, approved by state legislators 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 supporters, said people were not reusing or recycling any plastic bags. She pointed to a state study that found that the amount of plastic shopping bags trashed 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 bag ban passed a decade ago didn’t reduce the overall use of plastic.
“We are literally choking our planet with plastic waste,” she said in February.
The law goes into effect on January 1, 2026.
The law only bans plastic bags at the checkout. Customers can still use the bags offered for produce or meat.
Starting January 1, 2028, the state will also define a recycled paper bag as “one with more than 50% recycled material.”
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The usual routine of the regulation obsessed elected class – WHEN we choose to measure and find our rules don’t get the intended effect, there is only one solution. Double down. Triple down. Make it a felony. Etc. It MUST work as we told you! Obey!
She pointed to a “state study”
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Uh huh. Sure.
The country started using placlstic bags because states like California banned paper bags.
Now, the state is reversing itself again.
For the record, paper bags were always mostly recycled paper.
California needs to be split from the union.
They started using plastic bags in order to save the trees.
They banned a renewable resource.
Let that sink in for a moment.
This is a standard Democrat malady.
In 1994, Clinton pulled the FFLs of collectors and small dealers because “there were more firearms dealers in the USA than gas stations.”
In 2016, Obama threatened to fine or imprison any private gun owner who sells an arbitrary and explicitly unspecified number of guns per year (sometimes as few as “one or two”) without obtaining an FFL.
In March 2022, Joe Biden took action to reduce the number of outstanding FFLs because there were “too many,”
This is what you get when you operate out of experdiency instead of principle. It’s the difference between a pilot seat occupied by a fully-trained pilot, and one occupied by a yutz who just tries out all the buttons and levers to see what they do
I’ll pay Nancy Pelosi to carry my purchases until they outlaw old bags.
We are literally choking our planet with bureaucratic waste
You mean the utterly predictable negative consequence of the law came true? Clearly we need to keep the B- midwits in power so they may continue to trial-and-error their way towards Utopia.
You can buy plastic wastebasket liners or you can use supermarket plastic bags.
Like most people we tend to re-use plastic bags for multiple purposes, including small wastebasket liners. We also use them to dispose of used cat litter, to line coolers that will be holding fish, to wrap used paint brushes to put in fridge to be used the following day, etc.
As you note, people will now have to purchase use-specific plastic bags. Yet another expense directly imposed on us by overreaching government fiat.
ALL bags should be banned. Instead, the state should teach people to juggle 4 or 5 items.
Nah, the Democrats will wreck the economy so bad that the store will only have 1 or 2 items for sale. See, no need for bags at all.
Exactly. You’ll stand in line for 8 hours to find out the only thing for sale is shoe laces.
I seem to remember reading numerous stories over the years about how various jurisdictions have tried banning this-or-that type of shopping bag, and it never achieves the states goals, yet it always results in negative unintended consequences. It is because of exactly this type of nanny BS that I am leaving Austin, TX, taking my rather substantial property tax payments and the sales taxes my home-based business pays into the local economy with me. Buh-bye!
Austin is a blue as Berkeley. Walking around the Domain is just like walking around Palo Alto. Same kind of people. I asked a worker in the Apple Store: “About half the people around here are from California?” He shook his head– “yes.” Walking along East 5th Street reminds me of Oakland. The people fed up with Austin are moving north to my neck of the woods. I hope they don’t ruin it. The hoards of Californians moving into Texas are changing the state. Just as they ruined Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Montana. The Realtors in Idaho are publicly warning Californians not to come to Idaho with the intention of changing it.
The city council, in their infinite wisdom, thought a massive homeless shelter right between the tourist district and the university would be a good idea. Yeah, ‘dirty sixth’ really lives up to it’s moniker these days. Austin is definitely pulling in a lot of California progs… hopefully the ‘sorting effect’ is bringing in enough conservative-minded people to offset them and keep this state solidly red. The election results will tell us what we need to know on that front. We’re going further, out to Comal County in the hill country.
It amazes me how the term ‘liberal’ has changed since I was a rebellious teen in the 60s. It used to mean an attitude of allowing anything – no rules, etc. Now it means to be the most restrictive, rule based society to ever exist.
thats b/c the msm and the “educators” hid the truth about the dems
they called them liberals but they are then as now ……communistnazis sympathizers
they have ALWAYS been about government over the people
Because the commies stole it, killed it, gutted it, and wore it as a skinsuit, until it began to stink. Then they moved on to “progressive,”
paper straws
no gas stoves
air conditioning bye bye
it never ends with the communists as they are misery makers
Gig workers. Gasoline vehicles. Gas cans. Gas powered lawn tools. The list goes on and includes some big ones. This state is run by a few malicious folks with a bunch of support from imbecile yes men.
Now, California wants to ban astroturf because it is toxic. Mind you, California pushed astroturf because natural grass required so much water.
When will people tell Leftists to go take a hike?
The problem is that each generation of leftists assume they are smarter than the last generation of leftists, And they never bother to research the history to find out that the new policy they’re proposing is the same as the what the policy was before their daddies fiddled with that.
They don’t need to research. They’re so intelligent, their ideas will automatically work.
A friend in California has a relative in the CA state legislature who says that many of the legislators can’t do simple arithmetic. I now believe CA is unfixable. We should expel CA from the Union. Ultimately North Korea will fix CA with a barrage of nuclear missiles. Time to get far away before that happens or work hard to bring rationalism into government at all levels.
Soon Cali will mandate that only Soviet-era string shopping bags will be allowed.
You will only be able to shop one day at a time, since refrigerators will be banned and/or unavailable.
Standing in a long queue for hard-to-find items like onions or thick socks will become normal
This is the inevitable result of a central planning economy.
Macrame returning?! Can lava lamps and Beatle boots be far behind?
Good! Paper bags burn so much nicer than plastic ones. Save them up and find a politicians lawn to burn them on.
But the plastic ones hold dogshit better.
For household use or politicians’ front porches, either way.
OK, who actually did the studies that weighed the “trashed” plastic grocery bags from 2004 and 2021? I have trouble drawing a mental picture of a stack of plastic grocery bags that weighs 8 pounds, let alone 11… and the claim is that this is a per-person average. Wait! There’s a flag on the field– the call is bullshit.
What ever happened to the fears that people would not properly clean their personal bags and would end up poisoning themselves and their families?
The State of Maryland banned “single use” plastic bags but allowed retailers to charge for paper bags.
So when I went shopping at WalMart the other day, I was surprised (but not surprised) that the paper bags couldn’t hold items without tearing, but more importantly, they were made in and shipped from Italy.
It would seem impossible that importing bags from Italy would be more energy efficient than recycled plastic bags.
As an aside, once again in Maryland, Baltimore County was caught charging people for recycling and then not recycling anything and just dumping the waste into the same dumps as general waste.
No one was reprimanded, disciplined or fire for that.
In Baltimore, a recycling plant was so badly maintained and spewing out all sorts of things that the State took the plant over. Not a single manager, worker or City Supervisor was held responsible.
The bottom line is that most people – the general population – care about the planet. For the politicians, ecology and things such as recycling are political issue they can use to virtue signal.
“It’s the same picture.”
Virtue signaling is so tiresome. Animal rights activists shun leather shoes for synthetic materials that clog landfills?
Who was the comedian?
“I’m at the supermarket taking stuff out of my cart and putting it on the conveyor belt. Ground beef wrapped in plastic wrap; cold cuts in plastic cases; five two-liter plastic soda bottles, and a plastic bottle of milk. And then I ask the checkout girl for a plastic bag to carry it, and she looks at me like I’m killing the planet.”
Okay, this comment will be long and DEFINITIVE, so if anyone is seriously interested they should read it.
I became interested in the issue about 5 years ago when the town 6 miles down the hill decided to outlaw plastic bags. It was one of those cases where liberals refused to look at the science, surprise surprise. Iron Law: “You can always tell a ‘progressive,’ but you can never tell a ‘progressive’ a single thing.”
In fact, a disposable plastic bag is by far the most environmentally friendly way to bag groceries. The definitive report is at the link, and it’s long but as informative as it gets. When I attended the meeting where the ban was approved, I was dismissed. The town is dominated by “progressives,” and they only listen to themselves.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/life-cycle-assessment-of-supermarket-carrierbags-a-review-of-the-bags-available-in-2006
The Danish did a similar study, albeit not as comprehensive, and reached the same conclusion. On a list of environmental damage, the only issue for plastic bags is litter, and that’s real. But on every other metric, plastic is superior.
Recycled paper is no friendlier to the environment than virgin stock. Same chemicals, same pollution. I believe that’s in the UK report at the link.
So now the local grocery store uses paper bags at a dime per. Not only are they much less convenient, but they pile up in my pantry, and I burn them about every six months. The checkout clerks think it’s bullshit, but no matter. It’s only a minor annoyance in practice, but it bugs me because it’s also more environmentally damaging.
Where in US Or CA constitution is the power over citizens use of plastic bags? Just asking
For the US Constitution, that would arguably be the interstate commerce clause, the right to regulate waterways (because the bags supposedly get into the water) and the general welfare clause.
For CA, the Constitution allows for regulation of commerce and has a similar “general welfare” clause.
That is not to say that I agree with using those clauses as grounds for the regulation of plastic bags, but that would be some of the Constitutional backing.
As stupid as I think plastic bag bans are, I don’t think there’s a constitutional issue.