California governor signs law banning all plastic shopping bags at grocery stores

That's on the whole probably good news, though I'm having trouble finding immediate satisfaction. Banning plastic bags doesn't necessarily mean less of an impact on the environment. Not without a behavior change, as well.

Plastic bags have the lowest carbon footprint to produce and distribute compared to paper, polypropylene, or cotton. In many places plastic bags (including small produce bags) can be recycled at the grocery store (two near me do but it's easy to miss). I also found plastic very easy to reuse. It's a bit annoying to have to buy trashbags when my reused grocery bags worked fine and were made of less material.

Reusable totes are only as eco friendly as they are reused (about 130 times to equal plastic). Forgetting them and amassing a huge collection is not progress nor is using paper bags once and then recycling them. source

Happy to see attention on the issue but as I haven't always appreciated the nuances or been wary of the green washing in the past, I thought this was worth sharing. Progress is rarely as simple as a new regulation or new product, as strong capitalist forces would want us to believe. If we want meaningful progress we need to foster a culture that consumes less and reuses more.

Plastic bags have the lowest carbon footprint

Why do people only ever talk about the carbon footprint when plastic bans are discussed?
Plastic waste is lying around everywhere, microplastics have been found in placentas and brain stems, the great pacific garbage patch is larger than some micro states.

The environment consists of more than just the atmosphere and we should reduce both greenhouse gases and plastic waste.

Also

plastic bags (including small produce bags) can be recycled at the grocery store (two near me do but it’s easy to miss). I also found plastic very easy to reuse.

That may be so but many people do not recycle or reuse their plastic bags. I would assume this measure is aimed more at them then at you.
- Why do people only ever talk about the carbon footprint when plastic bans are discussed?
  
  To remind people they pollute in multiple ways, and reducing one way might increase the other way.
  
  However I’ve never seen a good comparison of the relative severity, only opinion. Is the apple worse for the environment , or the orange?
- the great pacific garbage patch is larger than some micro states.
  
  The garbage patch is mostly fishing gear
- Why do people only ever talk about the carbon footprint when plastic bans are discussed?
  
  This is not the case. Ai, crypto, airplanes, cars, meat production, fertilizers, etc are more are on my radar than bag bans. Suggesting otherwise feels combative. I agree that we should reduce both greenhouse gases and plastic waste. I didn't say or even suggest we shouldn't reduce plastic waste. My last sentence ("... we need to foster a culture that consumes less and reuses more.") is inclusive of reducing plastic use and waste.
  
  many people do not recycle or reuse their plastic bags. I would assume this measure is aimed more at them then at you.
  
  And that's why my response was about the behavioral and cultural change. The unintuitive fact about plastic vs paper bag carbon emissions was something I heard about a decade ago and it helped push my understanding of environment impact beyond simply "plastic bad, paper good," and focusing only on waste and not manufacturing and distribution, as well. Regulation is just one tool, and a blunt one at that, but individual choices matter and can operate with more nuance for better results. To be clear, that's not an argument against regulation, it's an argument for acting beyond the baseline that regulation sets.
  
  Edit: formatting, brevity, clarity, typo
- I also found plastic very easy to reuse
  
  By which he means he used it as a bin bag and threw it into landfill on the second use
  
  Smh
recycled at the grocery store

recycling thin films often doesn't happen without specialized equipment and most regions don't have it. so they collect it, but... it probably goes to a landfill.
I've never viewed getting rid of plastic bags as a carbon saving measure. To me it's addressing how bad they are when they get into the environment. As much as these bags can be reused, most aren't and they just end up thrown out.
- They're no problem when properly thrown out, but a huge problem when people litter with them as happens far too much. I hate to see us all punished because a significant portion of people can't stop littering, but I can't see us stopping them...

How hard was that? People lived fine before plastic bags. I want to see the end of all single-use plastics outside of a medical setting.

The day MLK was shot, he was in that city to help with a sanitation workers strike. The workers were asking for a couple of things including some way to wash up before leaving to go home. In those days people just threw mixed trash into metal cans unbagged, where the food waste would bleed out their juices and rot all week until garbage day. And those guys had to heave those cans up by hand to dump them out. AND they weren’t given so much as a sink to wash up in before their long bus ride home!

Learning about that made be appreciate the humble garbage bag a lot more.

But I have been using the biodegradable bags for both the trash and the compost for some years now. They are terrible bags and more expensive but it’s something I can deal with and it cuts down on plastic waste.

The real thing you’re going to have trouble with is food packaging. I hear you that people got along without plastics in the 1940s but I’d really like to hear a plan for how we’re going to deliver food to people in today’s world without all the plastics. I mean I really would like to hear that plan! I think it will be hard but we can certainly do a lot more.

It’s just a long way to “medical use only.” The amount of plastic used in Agriculture alone is one of the top sources of plastic in the US. It’s used in sheets to suppress weeds in crop fields, and it is arguably a better alternative than herbicides.
- Very insightful discussion. I agree, it’s much easier said than done. I believe we can do better to reduce our use of plastic, but not all use cases will be so easily replaced.
I'm old enough to remember when plastic bags became available in grocery stores. People didn't trust them, so they had displays at the entrances showing the bags holding heavy things, like several two liter soda bottles. They pushed so hard for plastic, saying that it would save the environment, and now they're pushing even harder saying it'll destroy the environment.

Now what about food packaging? Everything comes in plastic!

I live in Italy. We have plastic bags made out of plant material. They feel flimsy but they get the job done. They're not very reusable though.

Great for food waste bins
- this is what my compost bin liners and dogshit baggies are made of. decomposes in a few days, but fine for their purpose.
  
  no food packaging should last a decade.

This could not happen soon enough.

Insane that the US isnso behind on these type of laws.
- California is like if you bought the EU on wish dot com, at least they're trying

Now where will people store all their other plastic bags in under the sink????

We’ve had this in Jersey for a couple of years now. It’s been great. I highly suggest that any Californians who read this go to their nearest grocer within the week after the change goes into effect, I had a grand old time laughing at all the lazy people raging at having to pay for reusable bags. I had already been using my own bags for years so it didn’t change my behavior at all. Has changed how much plastic litter I’ve seen outside, though.

California already had banned single use bags. We've been ~~posting~~ paying for "reusable" plastic bags for a couple years already. This legislation bans all plastic bags, including the reusable types. Now we get to ~~being~~ bring our own bags, or get paper bags.
- I don’t understand… my local Safeway here in California still offers only single use plastic bags. They are a somewhat thick bag but still single-use, not some permanent thing you own.
- Gotcha. I guess no schadenfreude is on the horizon. Oh well
Sometimes I still forget to bring a bag, then I need yet another wawa bag, and I just stare at this neverending pile of bags
- Just ask for a cardboard box. Supermarkets have masses of boxes which just go to waste or recycling. My local puts them near the checkouts for customers to grab.
- I just walk out of Wawa looking like the “why can’t I hold all these limes” guy.
  
  I always leave one extra bag in my trunk and only use it when I forget the others. That helps in a pinch
- In my experience, it's resulting in bags that use much more plastic being disposed of, instead of the thin plastic bags they used to use.
My Whole Foods just uses paper bags, so I guess this doesn’t affect me :shrug:.
the change itself is worth it to me; I don't need to laugh at anyone.

we swapped to reusable bags here in seattle ages ago. then came covid, and some silly idea that reusable bags might spread it. so plastic came back.

we're back to our reusables but the grocery is handing out free thick plastic bags so no one brings their own, again. we're going to have to go through it all again.

in some ways I prefer paper bags but the handles on the cloth reusable bags are better.
I have so many reusable bags, mainly because I have a terrible case of "God fucking dammit I forgot to put it in the car again-itis" but i still wouldn't go back to plastic bags
- I have an “emergency” bag I leave in my trunk that I only use when I forget my usual ones. It helps!

Ayy fuck Newsom. That is all.

No find all trash bags you can find now and make them into a plastic dildo and use that to go fuck all plastic bag manufactures. That's much better in my opinion.
Why? For doing a good thing?

$20 says you're one of those grocery store customers that has to have everything put into a paper bag, and then double-bagged in plastic. Customers like that made me quit retail. We were constantly running out of bags because of customers like that.

Quit being lazy and just bring your own bags.
- I don't care about the bags, He's authoritarian elite, he's not looking out for me. Fuck him

Another tax on the working class. Thank you sir, can I have another?

What tax?

For the past few years needing a bag already came with a 10¢ charge per bag for either paper or plastic. This law just bans stores from offering the "reusable" plastic bags, which were near identical to the standard ones, just 5-10x thicker and supposedly having a rating of 125+ reuses.

Those bags were still sub-par quality, supplied in bulk, and rarely used more than once other than for filling with refuse. That previous law never made much sense.
No one is listening to your nonsense.

Well I've lived longer enough to see the beginning and total end of grocery delivery in California, that's neat.

Paper bags will still be allowed. How will this end grocery delivery?
- Have you attempted to use paper bags? How about overloaded paper bags in the rain, like most delivery orders tend to end up?
Right because there's literally no other type of bag in existence other than single-use plastic bags. So now it's impossible to deliver groceries because there's absolutely no type of container whatsoever that can hold groceries other than plastic bag
This isnt a new thing. I have not seen plastic grocery bags when I go shopping, or get deliveries my entire adult life. It doesnt do anything to you but helps the planet so why moan?
- I'm sorry you live a sheltered life.
You can't get groceries delivered in California?