At the end of August, California lawmakers passed two identical bills to ban all plastic shopping bags in California. The State Senate passed AB 2236 on the evening of August 28th and the State Assembly passed SB 1053 on August 29th.Both bills aim to completely ban grocers from offering any non-paper bags.
On the evening of August 28, while presenting AB 2236, Senator Blakespear held up a paper bag and a reusable bag in the Senate to show what the bill would allow.
Plastic bags have an average lifespan of 12 minutes before they are thrown away, with toxic microplastics rotting in our oceans and landfills for up to 1,000 years affecting our environment. The aim of the legislation is to incentivize consumers to carry their own reusable bags, a practice encouraged and supported by stores, which will reduce the expensive and wasteful practice of relying on store-provided takeaway bags. The next step is for them to be sent to the governor's desk, which will be looked at by Sept. 30 to see if they officially become law. If signed into law, it would go into effect on Jan. 1, 2026, at the earliest. California first introduced similar legislation in 2014, which was then approved by the state's voters in 2016. It allows stores to offer “reusable plastic takeout bags that are considered thicker.”
The truth is that thicker bags are hard to recycle - they're rarely recycled - and they're rarely reused. Instead, they contribute to California's growing plastic waste. According to CalRecycle, the number of grocery and merchandise bags Californians dispose of has grown 47 percent from 157,385 tons the year California passed its plastic bag ban to 231,072 tons in 2022.
