With law taking effect, California strengthens plastic bag ban

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(The Center Square) – A new law is closing what some officials have called a loophole in California’s plastic bag ban.

Senate Bill 1053 was passed and signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2024, but the law’s implementation was delayed, according to a representative for Sen. Catherine Blakespear, D-Encinitas, who authored the legislation.

“The legislation passed, and was signed in 2024, with a one-year delay in implementation, so stores could work through their inventory of plastic bags,” Andrew LaMar, a representative for Blakespear, wrote to The Center Square via email on Tuesday.

Blakespear was unavailable for further comment on Tuesday, but said in a news release that the bill completes the state’s current plastic bag ban.

“Californians have been ready and able to shop without plastic bags for a long time, and I’m glad SB 1053 finally follows through on the state’s original ban so we can effectively reduce plastic waste and better protect the environment,” Blakespear said. “The plastic bag prohibition at grocery store checkouts will eliminate millions of plastic bags from our waste stream, and using paper bags, when you don’t have a reusable one, is a more renewable and recyclable resource that doesn’t require drilling for oil in its creation, as plastic bags do.”

The plastic bag ban in California was first implemented after the passage of Senate Bill 270 in 2014 and upheld by voters in 2016, according to a bill analysis of SB 1053.

The newly-implemented law eliminates the exemption of thicker plastic bags, according to the bill analysis, outlawing thick plastic bags that were commonly used at grocery stores and pharmacies. It also spells out requirements for paper and reusable bags used by retailers, and noted only paper bags are allowed to be sold at the point of sale.

Proponents of the plastic bag ban told The Center Square that the bags allowed for use before SB 1053 used more plastic because they were thicker. They said the effect from the loophole was regrettable.

“What we’re most excited about with this is we’re finally going to have plastic bags from grocery stores eliminated entirely,” said Emily Parker, senior marine scientist and circular economy fellow at Heal The Bay, a nonprofit environmental organization based in Santa Monica. “I’m hoping consumers will get excited about the fact that there’s no longer plastic bags in stores, but ultimately, the best thing we can do to combat single-use plastic and plastic pollution is switch to reusable options.”

However, not everyone is supportive of the new bag ban law, and the ban could result in unintended consequences, according to an economist with the Pasadena-based Pacific Research Institute. 

"There's more effective means of recycling and proper disposal and things of that nature that would be much more effective without getting rid of the plastic bags," institute economist Wayne Winegarden told The Center Square on Tuesday. "It's an unnecessary, overly restrictive policy that is another instance of making quality of life in California that much less. It's just another straw that's piled on." 

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, plastic pollution is a consistent problem. Current plastic pollution could take between 100 to 1,000 years to decompose, the EPA said on its website, depending on environmental conditions. A study about plastic pollution published in the scientific journal Heliyon found that plastic are not biodegradable in nature, can exist for hundreds of years and that incinerating plastics is harmful because of the chemicals emitted into the air during burning.

The newly-implemented plastic bag ban law follows a lawsuit filed by California Attorney General Rob Bonta late last year between the state and three different companies who allegedly used single-use plastic bags in violation of state law, Bonta previously said.

Representatives from the California Grocers Association and the Plastic Pollution Coalition were unavailable on Tuesday.