CNS News–In 2026, California will not allow any plastic bags for shopping, thanks to a new bill that was passed Thursday in the state Legislature. In California, grocery stores and other places are already not allowed to use thin plastic bags. However, customers can buy bags made of thicker plastic at the register, which is supposed to make them reusable and recyclable.
Catharine Blakespear, a Democrat from the state, said that those bags are not being reused or recycled. A state study shows that the amount of plastic bags people throw away increased from 8 pounds per year in 2004 to 11 pounds per year in 2021.
“It shows that the ban on plastic bags that we passed in 2014 did not make people use less plastic by itself.” A Democrat from Encinitas named Blakespear said Thursday, “It led to a substantial increase in plastic.” “Our planet is choked with trash made of plastic.”
California bill would ban all plastic shopping bags at grocery stores https://t.co/0v0Oap1XBN pic.twitter.com/zAszRl0dNo
— ABC7 News (@abc7newsbayarea) February 9, 2024
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Environmental America Research & Policy Center, an environmental advocacy group, says that twelve states, including California, already have some kind of national ban on plastic bags. Plastic bag bans are also in place in over 300 cities in 28 states. In 2014, the California Legislature passed a law that banned plastic bags all over the state.
Later, people agreed with the law in a 2016 referendum. Democrats in the state legislature would have to decide if they want to sign this bill into law if it passes. In 2007, when Newsom was mayor of San Francisco, he signed the first law in the country banning plastic bags.