California governor signs law banning all plastic shopping bags at grocery stores

California had already banned skinny plastic buying luggage at supermarkets and different shops, however consumers may buy luggage made with a thicker plastic that purportedly made them reusable and recyclable.

The brand new measure, accredited by state legislators final month, bans all plastic buying luggage beginning in 2026. Shoppers who do not carry their very own luggage will now merely be requested if they need a paper bag.

State Sen. Catherine Blakespear, one of many invoice’s supporters, mentioned individuals weren’t reusing or recycling any plastic luggage. She pointed to a state examine that discovered that the quantity of plastic buying luggage trashed per particular person grew from 8 kilos (3.6 kilograms) per 12 months in 2004 to 11 kilos (5 kilograms) per 12 months in 2021.

Blakespear, a Democrat from Encinitas, mentioned the earlier bag ban handed a decade in the past did not scale back the general use of plastic.

“We are actually choking our planet with plastic waste,” she mentioned in February.

The environmental nonprofit Oceana applauded Newsom for signing the invoice and “safeguarding California’s shoreline, marine life, and communities from single-use plastic grocery luggage.”

Christy Leavitt, Oceana’s plastics marketing campaign director, mentioned Sunday that the brand new ban on single-use plastic luggage at grocery retailer checkouts “solidifies California as a frontrunner in tackling the worldwide plastic air pollution disaster.”

Twelve states, together with California, have already got some kind of statewide plastic bag ban in place, in keeping with the environmental advocacy group Atmosphere America Analysis & Coverage Middle. Tons of of cities throughout 28 states even have their very own plastic bag bans in place.

The California Legislature handed its statewide ban on plastic luggage in 2014. The legislation was later affirmed by voters in a 2016 referendum.

The California Public Curiosity Analysis Group mentioned Sunday that the brand new legislation lastly meets the intent of the unique bag ban.

“Plastic luggage create air pollution in our surroundings and break into microplastics that contaminate our ingesting water and threaten our well being,” mentioned the group’s director Jenn Engstrom. “Californians voted to ban plastic grocery luggage in our state virtually a decade in the past, however the legislation clearly wanted a redo. With the Governor’s signature, California has lastly banned plastic luggage in grocery checkout lanes as soon as and for all.”

As San Francisco’s mayor in 2007, Newsom signed the nation’s first plastic bag ban.

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