California News:
A bill aimed at banning all plastic bags from grocery stores and other stores moved ahead in the Senate Environmental Quality Committee on Wednesday with a 5-2 vote split across party lines.
Senate Bill 1053, authored by Senator Catherine Blakespear (D-Encinitas), was introduced in February. According to SB 1053, the bill would change the current plastic bag law and revise the single-use carryout bag exception to include a bag provided to a customer before the customer reaches the point of sale that is designed to protect a purchased item from damaging or contaminating other purchased items in a checkout bag, or to contain an unwrapped food item. The bill would also revise the definition of “recycled paper bag” to require it be made from 100% postconsumer recycled materials, without exception. SB 1053 would also require a reusable grocery bag sold by a store to a customer at the point of sale to meet different requirements including that it not be made from plastic film material, as well as repeal the provisions relating to certification of reusable grocery bags, and would repeal a provision relating to certain obsolete at-store recycling program requirements.
In laymans terms, stores will be going back to using solely paper alternate bags despite laws made decades ago that added plastic as an option due to worry about deforestation. If passed, the bill will go into law starting in January 2026.
Senator Blakespear wrote her bill alongside Assemblywoman Rebecca Bauer-Kahan’s (D-Orinda) AB 2236 due in large part because of how studies found that most Californians were either not recycling those bags or were still using the thicker bags as one time only bags, despite being designed to be used multiple times. According to one state study cited by Blakespear, the amount of plastic shopping bags trashed per person grew from 8 pounds per year in 2014 to 11 pounds per year in 2021, despite the massive law change. She also acknowledged how plastic bags were still causing environmental damage, and that a total ban was the only way to stop it. Some coastal cleanup surveys also found that volunteers have collected over 300,000 plastic grocery bags in the last three decades.
SB 1053 moves up
“If you have been paying attention – if you read the news at all in recent years – you know we are choking our planet with plastic waste,” said Senator Blakespear at a press conference in February. “A plastic bag has an average lifespan of 12 minutes and then it is discarded, often clogging sewage drains, contaminating our drinking water and degenerating into toxic microplastics that fester in our oceans and landfills for up to 1,000 years. It’s time to improve on California’s original plastic bags ban and do it right this time by completely eliminating plastic bags from being used at grocery stores.
“[Studies show] that the plastic bag ban that we passed in this state in 2014 did not reduce the overall use of plastic. It actually resulted in a substantial increase in plastic. We are literally choking our planet with plastic waste.”
SB 1053 quickly gained the support of environmentalists, storeowner organizations and other groups. Some opponents did come out against the bill, citing studies showing that plastic bans failed to reduce overall disposal and recycling costs. However, because of the support, experts said that it was likely to pass later this year.
On Wednesday, the bill passed it’s first hurdle in the Senate Environmental Quality Committee. However, the 5-2 vote showed that there was significant opposition to the bill, and that the plastic ban legislation wouldn’t go down without a fight, much to supporters chagrin.
“There is more opposition to this one than they originally had planned on,” explained Dana, a staffer in the Capitol to the Globe on Thursday. “These holes in the bill are only going to be exposed more down the line. There’s still a ton of committees and a Senate and Assembly vote left. Even if it does pass, opponents to this bill are going to lay everything out as to why this is bad. It will still likely pass, but it won’t pass very cleanly.”
SB 1053 is expected to be heard next in the next Senate Committee soon.
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Author: Evan Symon
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