As of the new year, California banned all plastic bags at retail and grocery stores under the Senate Bill 1053. This new law requires all stores to use paper bags, which will cost a minimum of 10 cents. The ban on plastic bags was created to reduce waste and prevent pollution of the environment. 

Senator Catherine S. Blake Spear said, “I’m glad SB 1053 finally follows through on the state’s original ban so we can effectively reduce plastic waste and better protect the environment.” 

 With the new ban, it will eliminate millions of plastic bags from our waste streams. Using paper bags is a recyclable resource, and it doesn’t require drilling for oil, whereas plastic bags do. 

Freshman Lior Pouravrahim said, “I think using paper bags instead of plastic is a great idea because it will reduce the amount of pollution and plastic waste.”

According to CalRecycle, the amount of grocery and merchandise bags used by people in California “…grew from 157,385 tons of plastic bags the year California passed the bag ban to 231,072 tons by 2022 – a 47% increase…” 

Even though produce bags won’t be affected by the new law, just banning plastic shopping bags from being used already makes a big difference,  as we see a dramatic reduction in plastic bag litter, such as, at beaches. 

However, the ban had negative impacts on consumers, such as paper bags ripping. Freshman Noa Granitz said, “I have experienced inconvenience with the new ban because every time I go get groceries, I either have to double bag, which doesn’t even work half of the time, or the bag will just rip.” 

The new ban on plastic bags might be inconvenient to some shoppers and might take time to get used to, whilst the ban could be inconvenient, there are enough positive effects that caused the California government to implement that law.