#plastic-bag-ban

#plastic-bag-ban

(SB 1053) Plastic Bag BanPlastic bags are on the way out in California. The state is expanding its ban on single-use plastic bags to include all plastic bags. The original law allowed the use of thicker plastic bags which were meant to be reusable, but since most consumers used them only once, those thicker bags are now being outlawed as well. Starting January 1, consumers will have to buy a bag made of recycled paper or use their own reusable bags.

The Napa County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday passed a ban on retailers providing plastic carryout bags to customers in the county's unincorporated areas starting next year, closing a loophole that had allowed thicker plastic bags marketed as reusable. The new rule aligns county policy with a forthcoming state law. Retailers will have until the ban takes effect to use up their remaining plastic checkout bags.

State Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, said companies Novolex Holdings, Inteplast Group and Mettler Packaging violated a state law passed in 2014 that banned plastic bags at grocery store checkouts that weren't recyclable. Under the law, shoppers could pay 10 cents for thicker plastic bags that needed to be reusable and recyclable. But the makers of the bags labeled them as recyclable even though they were not - recycling facilities cannot process them and they end up dumped in landfills, incinerated, or in the state's waterways, Bonta said.