Much of the movement to reduce plastic pollution has focused on single-use plastic bags used to cart purchases away from the supermarket. But there’s another type of plastic bag that is ubiquitous in grocery stores across the country: the handle-less plastic bags typically on offer by the produce or meat sections for shoppers to tear off and use to separate their apples or broccoli from the rest of their haul.
Beginning January 1, 2025, these other plastic bags will be a thing of the past. California is requiring grocery stores, retail stores with a pharmacy, convenience stores, food marts and liquor stores to offer recycled paper bags or compostable bags in lieu of plastic precheckout bags.
Senate Bill 1046 was signed in 2022 by Governor Newsom in an effort to reduce plastics in our waste stream. It is estimated that more than 400 million tons of plastic waste are produced worldwide each year, but only 5-6 percent is recycled. This bill is an important step to further reduce the amount of single-use plastic we encounter in our everyday lives.
Residents can consider going a step further to reduce their waste footprint by bringing their own reusable produce bag when they do their produce shopping. Here are examples of reusable produce bags: