When it comes into force

California passed a stricter plastic ban, but will it work? New Jersey tripled its plastic consumption after banning plastic bags in 2022.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a bill banning the use of plastic bags at grocery checkouts, including the thicker, “reusable” bags that stores adopted following an earlier ban.

“We deserve a cleaner future for our communities, our children, and our planet,” California Assemblywoman Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, one of the bill’s lead co-sponsors, said in a statement. “It’s time for us to ditch these plastic bags and continue moving toward a more pollution-free environment.”

Single-use plastic bags have been banned in the state of California for nearly 10 years, but on Sunday, Newsom signed a bill that would make the ban stricter.

The previous bill “allowed stores to sell customers thicker plastic bags that were considered reusable and met certain recyclability standards,” according to a statement posted on the website of Sen. Catherine Blakespear, who introduced the new bill.

“However, the truth is that almost none of these bags are reused or recycled and end up in landfills or polluting the environment.”

Previously, supermarkets offered customers either plastic or paper bags. Now, the new bill, SB 1053, will make it so that anyone who doesn’t have a reusable bag will be asked if they want a paper bag, rather than giving them the option to choose between plastic or paper.

“This simple approach is easy to follow and will help dramatically reduce plastic bag pollution,” Blakespear said in a statement.

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When will the bill be enacted?

The bill will come into force on January 1, 2026.

Redefining the “recycled paper bag”

The previous ban, SB 270, enacted July 1, 2015, required grocery stores, retail stores with pharmacies, convenience stores, supermarkets and liquor stores to only use reusable plastic bags made from recycled content or recycled paper bags, according to CalRecycle.

However, the new bill will change the definition of “recycled paper bag” and require all bags using that label to be made of at least 50% post-consumer recycled materials by January 1, 2028.

Why was this bill proposed?

According to the press release, the bags that stores moved to after the previous ban were:

Difficult to recycle
Rarely recycled
Rarely reused

In 2004, Californians used 147,038 tons, or about 8 pounds, of plastic per person, according to a separate statement posted on Blakespear’s website. By 2021, the figure had risen to 231,072 tons, or about 11 pounds per person.

Do plastic bans reduce plastic waste?

In January, a study found that New Jersey tripled its plastic consumption despite the state’s 2022 plastic ban aimed at addressing the “plastic pollution problem,” according to a previous USA TODAY report.

As New Jersey consumers began seeking out alternatives and purchasing reusable plastic bags, the state saw plastic consumption triple, largely due to the material used in the alternative bags, Freedonia Group found in its report.

“Most of these alternative bags are made from nonwoven polypropylene, which is not widely recycled in the United States and typically does not contain any post-consumer recycled material,” the report states.

Single-use plastic bans are one way to curb pollution and emissions created by plastic production, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

However, the search for alternatives to carry purchases and other products from the store leads to the purchase of products that increase the pollution caused by the manufacture of reusable bags.

Breaking

ByS. Jacob

California passed a stricter plastic ban, but will it work? New Jersey tripled its plastic consumption after banning plastic bags in 2022.

When will the bill be enacted?

Redefining the “recycled paper bag”

Why was this bill proposed?

Do plastic bans reduce plastic waste?

By S. Jacob

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