A PROPOSED policy on shopping bags will force millions of Americans to pay an extra fee when checking out.
Officials in Encinitas, California viewed Senate Bill 1053, calling for a ban on plastic grocery bags at supermarkets.
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The bill has a companion bill in the state assembly and will both receive a floor vote before the California legislative session ends next week.
It forces grocery stores to stop offering plastic bags to customers at checkout, and would only sell recyclable paper bags.
Because of this, shoppers would have to pay a small fee to buy the reusable bags.
“They wouldn’t have the option of paper or plastic, which is what we all hear at the grocery store. Paper or plastic!” Senator Catherine Blakespear told KPBS.
“It would just be paper if you didn’t happen to have your reusable bag with you.”
The bill aims to address a loophole found in the state’s first bag ban that was passed back in 2016.
It allowed grocery stores to sell thicker plastic bags by promoting them as reusable and recyclable despite being neither of those things.
The California Grocers Association said that shoppers rarely reuse the thicker bags available at stores.
Nate Rose, director of communications at the CGA said that an executive order banning the use of reusable bags during the Covid-19 pandemic is partially to blame.
At the time, health officials feared the bags would spread the virus.
“There is a sense that people lost the habit of bringing their reusable bags from home,” said Rose.
“And they were not reusing them. They were just using them once, which doesn’t really fit with the original intent.”
A study found that since passing the ban on plastic bags nearly 10 years ago, the amount of trash from plastic bags in state landfills has never been higher.
The editorial board claimed that there was nobody to blame for the loophole and that it wasn’t intentionally exploited.
“Retailers handed them out like candy, and consumers couldn’t have recycled them even if they wanted to,” the study read.
“No recycling facility in the state accepts these bags.”
In 2014, California had thrown out about 157,385 tons of plastic bags into the trash.
However, in 2022, plastic bags accounted for about 231,972 tons of trash – a nearly 50% increase.
“This can’t go on,” said the editorial board, claiming that the proposed Senate bills would rid grocery stores of plastic bags beginning in 2026.
They also called on lawmakers to expand the bill to get rid of plastic bags at farmers’ markets, restaurants, and some retailers as well.
“California has already taken a step in that direction by passing Senate Bill 54 two years ago, which by 2032 will phase out most plastic found today on grocery store shelves,” the editorial read.
“As for plastic bags, we can and should deal with them sooner.”
