\u201cPaper or plastic?\u201d Your days are numbered.<\/p>\n
The question that millions of shoppers have heard for years when they roll up to the checkout aisle at grocery stores will soon be a thing of the past.<\/p>\n
On Friday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a legal settlement with four major plastic bag manufacturing companies to stop selling such bags in California.<\/p>\n
State law already mandates that retailers stop using the plastic bags on Jan. 1. Friday\u2019s settlement hits the manufacturers with $1.7 million in penalties, establishes that they violated state law by selling unrecyclable bags for years, and will result in many of the bags being removed from the market early, before the end of this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cBillions of plastic carryout bags end up in landfills, incinerators, and the environment instead of being recycled as the bags proclaim,\u201d Bonta said. \u201cOur legal actions today make it clear: No corporation is above the law.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bonta had charged that the companies were violating a California law \u2014 first signed by former Gov. Jerry Brown in 2014 and then reaffirmed after an industry challenge by voters in a statewide ballot measure, Proposition 67, in 2016. That law banned the flimsy single-use bags at supermarkets and retail stores as a way to reduce litter and ocean pollution. It allowed an exception, however, for thicker plastic bags as long as they were \u201creusable\u201d and recyclable. Bonta said Friday that the thicker bags are actually not recyclable in California, and the companies were knowingly breaking the law by selling them.<\/p>\n
For many shoppers, the settlement was largely moot, however.<\/p>\n
Some store chains, including Whole Foods and Trader Joe\u2019s, only provide paper bags at the checkout counter. All\u00a0stores allow shoppers to bring their own reusable bags.<\/p>\n
And under a law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last year<\/a>, the thicker plastic bags were required to be phased out anyway at all California supermarkets and retail stores, effective Jan. 1, 2026.<\/p>\n That law, SB 1053<\/a>, by Sen. Catherine Blakespear, D-Encinitas, came after investigations showed the thicker plastic bags weren\u2019t being recycled, as their manufacturers claimed.<\/p>\n An investigation by ABC News<\/a> in 2023 found that when journalists put electronic tracking tags on 46 bundles of plastic bags left in recycling bins in WalMart and Target stores around the country, only four ended up at recycling centers. Half went to landfills and waste incinerators, seven stopped pinging at transfer stations that don\u2019t recycle or sort plastic bags, six last pinged at the store where they were dropped off, and three ended up in Indonesia and Malaysia.<\/p>\n Although the bags were on the way out in less than three months anyway, environmental groups said Friday they were pleased with Bonta\u2019s settlement.<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t make sense for something you use for minutes to last for centuries,\u201d said Nick Lapis, director of advocacy for Californians Against Waste, a non-profit group based in Sacramento. \u201cPlastic bags end up in the environment. They are eaten by marine mammals. They cause litter. They are so lightweight they float out of garbage trucks.\u201d<\/p>\n Under Friday\u2019s announcement, four plastic bag producers \u2014 Revolution Sustainable Solutions, Metro Poly, PreZero US Packaging, and Advance Polybag \u2014 agreed to stop selling the thicker plastic bags in California, and agreed to collectively pay $1.7 million in penalties to the state.<\/p>\n