A decennium ago , California became the first US province to banish single - utilization plastic bags . It bear witness to be a monumental nonstarter . hop to rectify the problem , the Golden State is doubling down with a new , even bigger plastic bag law .
Theinitial 2014 banprohibited grocery stores from circularise free single - use plastic bags for less than $ 0.10 . The musical theme was that customers would either get their own old bag or purchase “ reusable ” or reuse newspaper bag for a little fee .
In reality , shop class started selling thicker plastic bag that could be used many times in theory , but were much trickier to reuse ( and were just reuse anyway ) .
grant to state SenatorCatherine Blakespear , one of the new bill ’s supporters , a field find the amount of pliant bags thrown away by Californians grew from 157,385 lashings before the Bachelor of Arts in Nursing to 231,072 wads by 2022 – that ’s a 47 percent growth .
Now , lawmaker are look to close this loophole . On September 22 , California Governor Gavin Newsom signed in a new jurisprudence that effectively outlaws allplasticshopping traveling bag from being sold at the checkout .
Under the legislating , grocery store stores can only offer recycled report bags or consumer can simply just use their own bags they brought to the shop .
“ Instead of being asked do you want paper or plastic at check-out procedure , consumers will just be asked if they want a paper bag , if they have n’t bring a reclaimable bag . This square approach is easy to follow and will help oneself dramatically thin out plastic travelling bag defilement , ” Senator Blakespear said in astatement .
The law has been stand by several local and international groups focused on protect the surroundings , including Californians Against Waste , Heal the Bay , Surfrider Foundation , Monterey Bay Aquarium , Oceana , and Ocean Conservancy .
“ Plastic grocery bags have rank in the top ten most normally collected items by California Coastal Cleanup Day volunteers in seven of the last 10 years . Over that decade , unpaid worker have cleaned up enough charge card bags to span the length of the Golden Gate Bridge nearly 30 sentence , ” Dr Anja Brandon , Ocean Conservancy ’s Director of Plastics Policy , say in anotherstatement .
“ Plastic food market traveling bag are not only one of the most vulgar plastic polluting our beaches , but also one of the top five venomous frame of plastic pollution to marine life . But we have a simple solution that has been shown to reduce this type of plastic pollution : ban them . We thank Senator Blakespear , Assembly member Bauer - Kahan , and Governor Newsom for working with advocates to make this bill a reality , ” she noted .
While California ’s ban has been welcomed by environmentalists , the scale of the major planet ’s charge card problem require much more than a statewide proscription . Between75 and 199 million tonnesof plastic is currently lost in our ocean , and that figure is only pose toincrease .
Much of the world ’s fictile emissions come from just a handful of countries . A 2024 study published inNaturefound India was the braggart contributor to charge plate pollution – producing around a fifth of the entire amount – followed by Nigeria and Indonesia . China , previously reported to be the worst , was listed as the fourthly biggest manufacturer thanks to recent improvements in collecting and barren processing , followed by Pakistan , Bangladesh , Russia , Brazil , Thailand , and the Democratic Republic of the Congo .
