It was a decade ago when California became the first state in the nation to ban single-use plastic bags, ushering in a wave of anti-plastic legislation from coast to coast.
But in the years after California seemingly kicked its plastic grocery sack habit, material recovery facilities and environmental activists noticed a peculiar trend: Plastic bag waste by weight was increasing to unprecedented levels.
According to a report by the consumer advocacy group CALPIRG, 157,385 tons of plastic bag waste was discarded in California the year the law was passed. By 2022, however, the tonnage of discarded plastic bags had skyrocketed to 231,072 — a 47% jump. Even accounting for an increase in population, the number rose from 4.08 tons per 1,000 people in 2014 to 5.89 tons per 1,000 people in 2022.
The problem, it turns out, was a section of the law that allowed grocery stores and large retailers to provide thicker, heavier-weight plastic bags to customers for the price of a dime.
That is such an idiotic loophole there is no way in hell it wasn’t bought by lobbyists
The whole scheme is a farce designed to take what was once complimentary and turn it into a highly profitable side business. It’s the same the world over.
I refuse to buy into the scam u can now find me balancing my groceries intop of eavhother as i try navugate from my car to my kitchen. Yes i know i could use a reusable bag but i always forget.
You described most CA laws - don’t get me started on CARB and how is just pushing us toward bigger, less efficient cars while killing innovation by smaller engineering shops
I’ma second. This is officiallly unofficial permission to begin your dissertation on unforeseen consequences. I’m here for this.
As the asker of the question and someone who is vaguely interested in maybe one day getting into hot rod building to have an electric that doesn’t have those blasted touch screens, by all means, get started on it.
Totally was. In NJ, those poor saps were sold by the grocer lobbyists that the paper and plastic bag ban was good for reducing the amount of plastic bags. NJ is now seeing that there was no reduction in waste, but rather than cost being passed into the consumer. I lol’d so hard because “I told you so”
News 12 reported it on TV, so no, I have no link, but you can go find one.
Same shit, different set of idiots.
The idea of reusable bags was great, but they operated the same as the old plastic bags. They’re thicker, more durable, but most people don’t care enough to bring back their old bags, and will just buy new ones because it’s convenient. Speaking from personal experience.
Also, different places have different protocols, sometimes they make you bag your own groceries if you bring your own bags. Again, some people won’t bother.
They did this in the UK and it worked. The Cali law just has dumb ass loopholes in it.
That’s cause we didn’t actually ban them. Neo Liberals thought people would stop using them if they had to pay 10 cents.
Turns out, nobody cared. We need an actual ban.
Not OP, but that’s what we did in the UK too… I’m honestly confused reading the post and the comments calling California out on this. I must be misunderstanding something because we did the same thing and it really, really worked. The UK led the charge on the concept of ‘nudges’ like this and it’s been successful and widely praised. We still have thick plastic bags that you buy for 10p, but most people really do keep some on hand for most situations so plastic dumping has been significantly reduced.
Somewhere a Social Anthropologist is lining up their PhD paper.
The ‘nudges’ thing is contested. It’s basically from one book and the studies that used it mostly showed temporary single digit differences. Then there’s a lot of celebration that “the rate of change is picking up!” before long term effects fail to emerge. It falls smack dab in the center of the replication crisis.
A lot more direct action is required to make sizeable changes, like outreach campaigns and actually trying to change people’s minds/behavior.
Fair enough, thank you for clarifying! ‘replication crisis’ were the first words in my head as soon as I saw the top line of your comment haha.
It could still be a financial penalty, but it should be 10 dollars instead of 10 cents.
That would probably do it
Ireland has a plastic bag levy of 22c per bag. Most supermarkets don’t even bother selling single use bags any more. If you want to buy a bag, then your choice is a thicker reusable bag or a “bag for life” that most supermarkets will charge you 70c or more for.
I suppose some people might throw them away but more likely they hang onto them because they cost so much to begin with.
In some supermarkets like LIDL and Aldi it’s also quite common for someone to grab an empty cardboard box that (the stores usually toss them in a big mesh bin) and use that to carry stuff away. These can be put into recycling.
There is also a drive to ban single use plastics like cutlery, straws, cups etc. Ireland also just imposed a refundable tax on plastic bottles and cans - supermarkets have machines that ingest returned containers and print out a credit slip.
I just carry some of the thick ones in my car in the trunk and just bag there at the car. I fold them up and bring them to the car and leave them there next time I go out anywhere. A habit that is less common for me to forget to do now but I did forget all the time initially and would pay at the counter. I have an excess of them now though so even when I do forget to bring some down I have spares in the car. Less chance of forgetting twice anyway. Easy thing to change to.
Plastic bags need to be banned totally.
My city banned plastic bags and it costs 10 cents for paper bags so you definitely see a lot more cloth bags being brought in. Just at grocery stores, you still get take out in plastic bags every so often but most places just switched to all paper
Our city is the same but they sell you and even thicker plastic bag for 10 cents. No paper options. (Safeway)
I did notice an option at Kroger or maybe it was Walmart when you do pickup they won’t use plastic bags. I have a big shopping basket I accidentally liberated from the store years ago that stays in the back of the car they put the stuff in.
LOL my wife would come home with brand new plant liners. WTF! You can just vacuum form these things and reuse them as furniture.
Yup. They just created more waste. We need to make the jump to no plastic bags. It’s time, we can do it.
Would it not work to do like we do for refundable cans? QR code or barcode on the bag to verify and store drop off for a refund of this 10/15¢. People would go out of their way to collect and drop these off at facilities that could accept and recycle these.
you can’t really recycle a regular plastic bag, the materials used are “bottom of the food chain”. around here they recycle bottles and containers, but use wrappings and bags to heat up the regular garbage incinerators…
Yeah. Why are they even offering these? Use paper for instacart shoppers only. Everyone else needs to bring their own. Why is it so hard to put this into play?
Because stores lose out on the impulse shopper market. Who didn’t plan to go shopping and didn’t bring bags.
Germany did this years ago. Seems to work. You can still get plastic bags, but you have to pay for them.
That’s what the article is saying.
The intent was to drop plastic usage. It did, but plastic usage multiplied because the plastic bags people are paying for contain more plastic than before.
Another German law states that if you make a product, like a plastic bag, you must pay for its disposal after use. That way, if a product changes, the manufacturer bears the cost. Does drive prices up, though.
Coming from a country that did this ages ago for stupid reasons.
Wait until they come for your straws. Cutting down trees for paper bags I can deal with but fucking paper straws (Mcdonalds im looking at you) is god awful.
Edit: downvoters getting sour about the paper bags consuming trees is a reality and cost of shifting resources. So do we create enormous plastic waste and destroy the environment or do we cut down trees and destroy the atmosphere. Policy change requires constructive thought, critical thought to test, and balance (not always but considered) to get the best outcome.
There are compostable straws that work quite well. Also maybe just use a metal straw, or bring your own cup, no need to have disposable everything.
Metal straw I can get bahind but other straw types just dont make it to market because money. Personally just take the lid off and use a cup like an adult.
God the fictional line of just bring your own cup. No one brings their own cup to Mcdonalds. No one. They dont accept them now anyway. Their soda machines are automated for their own cups. Their trajectory is hire less people buy more robots.
