Closing the Plastic Bag Loophole

A plastic bag floating in the harbor (Photo – Eva Cicoria)

Plastic bags were banned in California in 2014. Many of us knew this plastic bag ban existed, but we wondered why plastic bags were still available at grocery stores and farmers markets.

By Cheryl Auger

I too was baffled and one day performed a closer inspection of the bags. The bags were thicker than the other bags and the word “reusable” was printed on the bag, and that in fact was the loophole qualifying the bag for sale at grocery stores.

The law banned bags that were not a recycled paper bag or a reusable grocery bag. And while technically the bags are reusable it is a rare sighting to see anyone pull these bags out for reuse during checkout. Anecdotally people have told me they use their bags a second time for trash bags. But the legislation was meant to have reusable bags that were used repeatedly, not just a couple of times. So, starting January 1, 2026, stores will be required to provide only recycled paper bags and not plastic bags and they increased the percentage of post consumer recycled content from 40% to 50%. That starts on January 1, 2028.

Litter in the ocean (Photo – Eva Cicoria)

Littering our water

While the change is great for the environment and was a necessary step to reduce the growing blight of plastic pollution, it doesn’t go far enough to incentivize people to carry their own bags. The existing legislation mandates a charge of ten cents a bag at a minimum. And this has not changed since the initial legislation in 2014. I would have liked to see that raised to a dollar a bag with the remaining money going to groups helping with plastic pollution cleanup. Paddle Out Plastic, a group of volunteers that pick plastic out of the water, plucked 72,948 pieces of litter (2,802 pounds) from the water in just 2023 alone. Whether paper, plastic, or any other material, we need to choose reusables.