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Nov 05, 2024

California is hoping its latest plastic bag ban will actually work - Marketplace

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When California’s first single-use plastic bag ban went into effect in 2016, the companies making the bags found a loophole: If the bags were thick enough to reuse 125 times, they don’t count as single-use anymore. The loophole worked spectacularly, and Dan Mott, environmental educator with the nonprofit Friends of the LA River, saw the evidence in the river’s trash.

“All of a sudden, they just became very prominent again, and they’re the thicker ones with that ridiculous notion that we would be reusing those,” Mott said.

His organization puts on a river cleanup each year that attracts thousands of volunteers. And he said the most common item they find is plastic bags, including the thick ones sold in grocery stores.

California’s plastic grocery bag waste actually increased after the first ban went into effect, according to the state’s Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, from 157,395 tons in 2014 to 231,072 tons in 2021. It’s partly because even though some bags say they’re recyclable, a lot of recyclers can’t process them.

It’s also partly because even the people who live in LA and show up at 8 a.m. to pick up trash don’t always reuse bags.

“Often I forget it in the trunk of my car,” said volunteer Todd Smith.

“I forget bags every once in awhile, so I’m like, ‘shoot,'” said volunteer Carly Mischke.

“They never have paper bags, so I always have to get those plastics,” said volunteer Alexis Brunkow.

The new law aims to close that loophole. It says shoppers can either bring in their own bag, buy a paper bag or walk out with no bag at all.

“Gosh, I hope we got it done,” said Mark Murray, executive director of an environmental group called Californians Against Waste. “I mean, it’s like third or fourth time’s the charm in terms of making this happen.”

He’s hopeful this will work, but the new law isn’t perfect.

“This legislation is regulating what happens at the check stand,” he said. “But this legislation does not regulate what can be sold in the aisles of the store.”

So, theoretically, the store could just sell those thick bags in an aisle a few steps away from the checkout lanes.

“We’re hoping that grocery stores will abide by the spirit of the law, because we don’t want to do this again two or four years from now,” Murray said.

Other states, like New York, have managed to actually ban plastic bags.

“We were able to kind of see what was going on in California,” said Kayla Montayne, environmental program specialist with New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation. “And so here in New York state, they were never allowed to qualify as a reusable bag.”

Just like California’s, the New York law doesn’t apply to everybody. The mom-and-pop restaurant can still use plastic. So can the butcher in the grocery store. But New York City still saw a massive decrease once the ban went into effect.

“Between 2017 and 2023, there was over a 50% decrease in the amount of plastic bags in the waste stream,” Montayne said.

California won’t know whether its new law is successful for more than a year. Stores have until January 2026 to comply.

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