California lawmakers effectively ban all plastic grocery bags — here's how it could affect your shopping

"It ended up providing a lesson for other state and even local governments to learn from and to not allow loopholes like thicker plastic bags."

Photo Credit: iStock

California is just saying no to plastic bags, as lawmakers recently passed legislation that will ban grocery stores from offering any bags other than paper at checkout.

According to NPR, the new law will require people to pay at least 10 cents for a paper bag, use a reusable one, or hand-carry their purchase.

Though California passed a plastic bag ban in 2014 — becoming the first state in the country to do so — the original law allowed grocery stores to offer plastic bags if they were deemed reusable and recyclable, KTLA 5 explained. The new law closes this loophole.

The legislation is a positive step toward a healthier planet. As the University of Colorado Boulder, explained, most plastic grocery bags are made out of polyethylene. Ethylene is predominantly obtained through either crude oil or natural gas, so both the extraction and production processes associated with single-use plastic release vast amounts of planet-heating pollution, according to the university.

Then there's disposal. Americans go through around 100 billion plastic bags a year, according to CU, and these bags are hard to recycle. That means that many end up in landfills, taking more than 1,000 years to decompose, according to the Center for Biological Diversity. This once again threatens people and the environment as toxic microplastics leach into the soil and water.

California is not the only place to take a stand against plastic bags. In Colorado, an estimated 1.5 to 1.8 billion fewer plastic bags were used in 2023 after the state began requiring major retailers to charge customers 10 cents for every plastic or paper bag. Plus, New Zealand became the first nation to ban both plastic shopping bags and plastic produce bags.

As for the California legislation, "we've known for a long time that plastic bags create pollution in our environment," CALPIRG State Director Jenn Engstrom said, per KTLA 5. "The problem is that grocery stores have been allowed to still provide thicker plastic bags, and now plastic bag waste is at an all-time high. With today's vote in the legislature, California is on track to finally ban plastic bags in grocery checkout lanes once and for all."

"California kind of took one for the team as the first to pass a statewide ban on plastic bags," Melissa Valliant, communications director for the advocacy group Beyond Plastics, told NPR. "It ended up providing a lesson for other state and even local governments to learn from and to not allow loopholes like thicker plastic bags."

Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.