California’s plastic grocery bag ban just went into effect.
The new law, authored by State Sen. Catherine Blakespear, D-Encinitas, closes a loophole in the state’s initial bag ban from 2014 that allowed thicker bags to be sold at checkout, provided they were recyclable or reusable.
State investigations found that customers rarely reached for the thicker bags after a single use, and that they weren’t actually being recycled. Late last year, Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the state is suing three major plastic bag producers. Four others settled with the state.
This time, California said no more to all grocery plastic shopping bags.
“Californians have been ready and able to shop without plastic bags for a long time, and I’m glad (Senate Bill) 1053 finally follows through on the state’s original ban so we can effectively reduce plastic waste and better protect the environment,” Blakespear said in a statement just before the law went into effect.
The state isn’t stopping at shopping bags, she added. A much broader push to reduce single-use plastics statewide is underway.
“The thing that’s really emerging is the implementation of Senate Bill 54, and CalRecycle is really the level of government that’s dealing with that,” said Blakespear.
SB 54, signed into law in 2022, is the state’s ambitious law that holds producers of single-use plastics responsible for the costs to manage the life cycle of their products, ranging from food wrappers to utensils and shipping materials.
According to CalRecycle, which is proposing regulations for producers, about 5,700 companies would be regulated under the state program. Producers will have to pay $5 billion over a decade, starting next year, to address the environmental impacts of plastic pollution and help communities most affected by plastic waste.
The law’s goal is to ensure that all packaging and food service ware is recyclable or compostable by 2032.
Regulations were expected to be in place by last year; however, implementing the program has been anything but straightforward.
Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom rejected CalRecycle’s initial draft regulations over concerns that the program would impose exorbitant costs on consumers and businesses. An initial state analysis showed the law would cost the state $36 billion.
CalRecycle went back to the drawing board and submitted updated regulations to the Office of Administrative Law late last year. A state spokesperson said they are under review.
Janis Jones, a Vista resident who leads the Surfrider Foundation’s Rise Above Plastics program, said consumers don’t have to wait for new rules to take effect to get in the habit of reducing plastic consumption.
Several grocery stores already offer bulk bins, and more people are starting to embrace them, she said. Some also allow customers to use their own containers.
“When I walk into the market where I regularly shop, I first encounter the bakery section where all the baked goods are in plastic clamshells. And I can walk past that area and go to their actual bakery counter or their deli counter or their meat counter, and purchase things there that I can ask to have placed in my own container,” she said.
This year, Jones said she will push more San Diego County cities to adopt universal plastic bans akin to what Coronado has adopted. The city’s ordinance, adopted in February 2025, includes prohibitions on single-use plastic and polystyrene food packaging citywide and plastic carryout bags at all retail and food businesses.
