SAN DIEGO (KGTV)— In about a year and a half, customers will no longer be asked for paper or plastic when they check out at a grocery store in California.
They will just get paper bags.
This comes after Governor Gavin Newsom signed a billthat goes into effect at the start of 2026.
“There’s a tremendous amount of plastic floating around our oceans,” State Sen. Catherine Blakespear, D-Encinitas, said. “And so, this will help deal with that problem.”
Blakespear said she’s got a solution to part of what she describes as a plastic problem.
She wrote the billthat got Newsom’s signature, banning plastic bags at grocery store checkouts. On Jan. 1, 2026, it will become the official way of doing business in California.
“The idea behind that was to allow grocery stores to go through their inventory,” Blakespear said.
Blakespear said it closes a 10-year-old loophole from the previous plastic bang law.
“There was a loophole that would allow for thicker bags – thicker plastic bags which we all see at the market – to be distributed in commonplace. Unfortunately, since the plastic bag ban, plastic bag pollution has doubled,” Blakespear said.
“I understand what they’re trying to do, but their success rate has been zero so far. Actually, they’ve gone backwards with plastic bags,” Dirk Stump, a local grocery store owner, said.
“I can only speak economically; it’s going to cost the consumer more because paper bags are about three times as much as plastic bags.”
Stump says a 2026 start is better than an immediate one, but he doesn’t feel this is the best path.
“I always think the marketplace dictates, and the customer should have the choice to pick what they want. They want plastic bags, then there should be plastic bags. If they don’t want plastic bags, then there should be paper bags they can use. They want to use their own bags; they should have that too,” Stump said.
Blakespear told ABC 10News that there’s no additional cost to consumers with this new law, just the removal of plastic bags.
Whether it shakes out that way — we’ll have to wait a bit.
“Instead of trying to create a new loophole by saying what exactly is a reusable bag and, what percentage has to be woven and what percentage is plastic. It’s basically saying that at point of sale, there will be paper bags offered,” Blakespear said. “So it’s just a really clear statement. It’s not creating loopholes. It’s making so that grocery stores know how to comply.”