SACRAMENTO, California — Ten years after passing a nation-leading ban on most plastic bags, California is still trying to stamp them out.
California led the country in 2014 by passing S.B. 270, a law to ban single-use carry-out bags from most stores. But a decade later, plastic bag waste has only increased thanks to loopholes in the law and to people not recycling and reusing the bags as much as intended.
Lawmakers are now trying again. They sent Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) a bill last week to require stores to offer only recycled paper bags at check out instead of an option between paper and thicker plastic bags, which were exempt from the 2014 ban.
“This was clearly flawed, because those bags are not recyclable,” said state Sen. Catherine Blakespear, a Democrat from Encinitas and one of the main authors of S.B. 1053. “Frankly, this is really overdue.”
