SACRAMENTO, California — Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill Sunday to ban plastic bags at most California checkout aisles, closing a loophole in a nation-leading bag ban from a decade ago that allowed thicker plastic bags to proliferate.
Under state Sen. Catherine Blakespear’s (D) CA SB1053, grocery and retail stores will only be allowed to provide paper bags at checkout starting Jan. 1, 2026, instead of an option between paper and plastic.
California led the country in 2014 by passing CA SB270, a law to ban single-use carryout bags from most stores. The ban exempted thicker plastic bags if they were reusable and recyclable; but a decade later, people aren’t recycling and reusing the bags as much as intended and plastic bag waste has only increased. The number of tons of plastic bags disposed of increased nearly 50 percent between 2014 and 2021, according to a report by consumer advocacy group CalPIRG in January.
In a sign that California politicians are practically tripping over themselves to appear anti-plastic, both Blakespear and Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, a Democrat from the East Bay, shepherded identical but separate bills through nearly the entire legislative process with the intent of sending both to Newsom. Bauer-Kahan’s CA AB2236 ran into a logjam of other bills crowding to get through on the last night of the session last month.
