CA Trailblazing to Ban the Bag!

On August 30, 2014, the California state Senate made a ground-breaking move by voting 22-15 to pass a bill that will ban single-use plastic grocery bags state-wide.

Of course, this bill still needs to be signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown by the end of September to become a law. While Brown has not shown support or opposition for the bill, his signing it would be a momentous move in the history of US environmental advicosy.

Plastic bags litter a creek in LA County. Credit

If adopted, California will be the first state to go complete-ly baggless, and other states are sure to follow.

According to California Against Waste, more than ten billion plastic bags are used once and thrown away each year in California alone. Those bags despoil landscapes, clog waterways, poison sea-creatures, and create mountains of waste that cannot be easily recycled.

This bill will loan $2million to plastic bag manufactures in order for them to begin producing sturdier reusable bags. Grocery stores will be able to charge for these bags and also 10 cents for each paper bags that consumers require.

Charging customers for bags is a great way to encourage reusable bag usage. However, I cannot stop to wonder with this monetary incentive to the bag manufacturers, wouldn't it be in their best interest to ensure that their reusable bags have a planned obsolescence to ensure bag sales?

Luckily, no matter how poorly and short-lived these bags may be, they will indeed create less waste than their single-use counterparts.  And for this fact, I and my fellow reusable-bag advocates are celebrating!