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Earth

California Passes Law Banning Single-Use Plastic Grocery Bags by 2025 (marinij.com) 201

You know how grocery stores have rolls of tear-off plastic bags in their produce sections for holding vegetables and fruit?

Last week California's governor signed a law that will force supermarkets to discontinue them before 2025, reports the Bay Area Newsgroup, replacing them with either recycled paper bags or bags made of compostable plastic: "This kind of plastic film is not recyclable...." said Nick Lapis, director of advocacy for Californians Against Waste, an environmental group that supported the bill. "It flies around landfills and flies out of trucks. It gets stuck on gears at recycling facilities. And it contaminates compost. It's a problematic product we want to get rid of...."

"We're not banning the bags," Lapis said. "We are just requiring a more-sustainable type of bags. You'll still have a place to put your fruits and vegetables that won't leak."

The article notes that Trader Joe's is already using compostable produce bags, and Eben Schwartz, marine debris manager for the California Coastal Commission suggests that consumers can also just try opting for paper bags. "It's significantly more recyclable. And it will break down if it finds its way into the marine environment."

But he also offered one more piece of advice: "Decide whether you really need your bananas in a bag. You probably don't."
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California Passes Law Banning Single-Use Plastic Grocery Bags by 2025

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  • by Adrian Harvey ( 6578 ) on Monday October 10, 2022 @06:52AM (#62952733)

    Most of the rest of the world banned them years ago. If this is really a headline perhaps it should be “California might catch up with the rest of the world in a couple of years”. I’m surprised anywhere is still using them - let alone somewhere supposedly concerned about the environment like California.

    • Covid-19, in the early days, spawned a very fast reprise for single use plastics. Facing the fear or germ spread, people abandoned their all natural cleaners in favor of bleach and ammonia based ones really fast. Bad for the environment also meant bad for viruses. The more caustic the better. I still dont get whats so bad about just drinking out of a glass without a straw.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Why is this stuff that matters?

      You don't think minimizing plastic waste is something that matters?

      Most of the rest of the world banned them years ago.

      OK... that didn't include the US.

      If this is really a headline perhaps it should be “California might catch up with the rest of the world in a couple of years”.

      What you a failing to realize is that this particular publication and Slashdot are both US centric. Perhaps you should get out of your own bubble.

  • I've started seeing bunches of bananas being wrapped in paper to keep them from falling apart [banabiosa.com]. Of course bananas already come in natural packaging.
    • by GoTeam ( 5042081 )
      They also come pre-bound by nature, but I guess some people what their banana packaging to be "premium".
  • Trash can liner sales are up 1100% in places that have already banned plastic shopping bags.

    Follow the money.

    • by Pascoea ( 968200 )
      And that's related to the article at hand, how, exactly?
      • Re:Trash can liners (Score:4, Informative)

        by tsqr ( 808554 ) on Monday October 10, 2022 @09:13AM (#62953055)

        And that's related to the article at hand, how, exactly?

        Some people just can't contain their outrage long enough to figure out what the article at hand is about. The OP appears to fall into that group of people.

        The type of bags being banned aren't the ones people use for trash can liners; they're the ones used to put produce and meat in, that at checkout go into the bags people use for trash can liners.

        Some people use the produce bags to contain food scraps that go into the kitchen trash container, to keep the decomposing scraps from stinking up the kitchen (yes, I know about composting; most people don't do that), but that is not the common use case for trash can liners.

        • by Pascoea ( 968200 )

          The type of bags being banned aren't the ones people use for trash can liners

          I wasn't going to point it out for them, but that's what I was getting at.

        • And that's related to the article at hand, how, exactly?

          Some people just can't contain their outrage long enough to figure out what the article at hand is about. The OP appears to fall into that group of people.

          The type of bags being banned aren't the ones people use for trash can liners; they're the ones used to put produce and meat in, that at checkout go into the bags people use for trash can liners.

          Some people use the produce bags to contain food scraps that go into the kitchen trash container, to keep the decomposing scraps from stinking up the kitchen (yes, I know about composting; most people don't do that), but that is not the common use case for trash can liners.

          But it brings up the question - should all forms of plastic bags be banned? We do all the holy things like use totes and wrap our frozen meats in paper that presumably doesn't go to a landfill with the rest of the trash.

          What will be the replacement for our trash can liners?

          Note - I take my lawn clippings to our local composting facility, and I use a heavy duty big plastic bag to hold them. I do re-use it, so I suppose I'm not too bad a person.

          But make no mistake, there is a pretty big push to elimi

          • by tsqr ( 808554 )

            But make no mistake, there is a pretty big push to eliminate all plastics. What replaces it?

            As far as I can tell, the big push is to eliminate petroleum-based plastics and replace them will plastics made from renewable resources (so-called "bio-plastics").

        • Some people use the produce bags to contain food scraps that go into the kitchen trash container, to keep the decomposing scraps from stinking up the kitchen (yes, I know about composting; most people don't do that)

          This makes me wonder if I can just put the compostable bags down the drain with my food scraps as well?

      • Because if you re-use them, they aren't single use any more. I use them for liners and to clean up dog poop.
        • by Pascoea ( 968200 )
          You use produce bags (the micron-thick ones that come on rolls next to the carrots) as trash can liners and poop bags? I prefer the thicker grocery bags (the ones at the checkout line) for poop containing and trash-can-lining purposes, they hold up better.
          • I walk the dog at the park so produce bags are fine to clean up and discard there. They have rolls you can use at the park but seems like throwing out a l lot more plastic they are quite a bit heavier. I've never had an issue with 'break through'
  • by neverday ( 10182489 ) on Monday October 10, 2022 @07:47AM (#62952841)
    Somehow our parents were able to use paper bags for groceries. I never heard my mom whine about grocery bags. If we have mental breakdown over such a minor issue then how can we possibly solve the big problems? It's not rocket science after all. But apparently fixing the most minor problems really disturbs some people.
    • Somehow our parents were able to use paper bags for groceries. I never heard my mom whine about grocery bags. If we have mental breakdown over such a minor issue then how can we possibly solve the big problems? It's not rocket science after all. But apparently fixing the most minor problems really disturbs some people.

      Those paper bags were very different. The paper bags in use today are pretty crummy. The paper they are made of has been recycled too many times, and each time paper is recycled, it gets weaker. That's why a lot of paper products have a percentage of first-use paper in them. I can use a tote or two (we have one for regular items, and an insulated one to keep the frozen stuff frozen.

      • by skam240 ( 789197 )

        They're only crummy because they're cheaper. If grocery stores spent what they used to for bags (adjusted for inflation) they'd still be decent.

  • Yes, it is.

    Which suggests that the motivation behind this legislation is either
    a) hysteria,
    b) lies
    c) both of the above.

    Haven't we been insisting that we should #followthescience? Are Twitter and FB going to ban the State of CA for KNOWN, provable scientific untruths? Is Paypal going to threaten to charge them?

    I think we all know the answers, don't we?

    • California's recycling system is such a racket that it seems that Sacramento can't regulate them to actually recycle anything. At this point all that is left is to take plastics out of the system entirely. Consider this law an act of desperation rather than progressive overreach.

    • by skam240 ( 789197 )

      I'll chose D) It's a bad quote but you're the one engaging in hysteria.

      Only a miniscule portion of the plastic we "recycle" is ever actually recycled https://phys.org/news/2022-05-... [phys.org] hence recycling as it is now does not really work to reduce plastic waste.

      Of course accepting D means you can't throw a fit and be angry at those with different political ideals than yourself so just like it was the first thing to come to mind for you you'll probably continue to choose hysteria.

    • When you start to work with plastics for a bit you soon realize that no plastic is truly recyclable. Even in a best case scenario, the recycled plastic will lose most of its mechanical properties, and the recycling process will waste so much energy that it will have a bigger impact on the environment than just incinerating it for energy production. The best you can hope for is the production of some synthetic fibers, some types of garden furniture, or paving material. And you definitely can't recycle this m

  • We used to use reusable bags all of the time. However, they weren't allowed during the pandemic. Now that the pandemic is "over" we've found the grocery store staff won't touch the reusable bags. You either bag it yourself, or use plastic.
  • Didn't they trying this crap before? Have you noticed that the whole crusade against plastic straws magically went away when COVID hit? Now that COVID is over, they're back to the same old brow-beating they are so comfortable with. I had a friend tell me in the 1980s that California was the penis of the nation. I didn't believe that at the time but I do now. California loves to screw the rest of the nation over with their phony altruism. To this day, if you want to sell something to a California state

  • It may come as a surprise to Eben Schwartz, but I actually eat stuff other than bananas.

    Do away with bags, and we will have individually wrapped produce. Then they can pass laws against that.

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