Person holding groceries in plastic bags. (ARIMAG/Shutterstock)
No More ‘Paper or Plastic:’ Bring Your Own Bags to the Store Jan 1
‘It’s very unlikely that many animals are killed by plastic bags. The evidence shows just the opposite’
By Katy Grimes, December 11, 2025 10:30 am
I have been covering the “Paper or Plastic” game since George W. Bush was President. And it’s only gotten more ridiculous.
First California lawmakers banned paper bags because they “killed” trees – the ultimate renewable resource. They replaced paper with plastic bags, which they are now banning to go back to tree-killing paper bags. Or, you can carry your filthy multi-use cloth bags.
In 2009, when plastic bag bans were all the rage in cities around the country, and paper bags were considered tree killers, I reported in the Washington Examiner:
San Francisco’s ban on plastic bags has not provided the environmental results it expected. Anticipated environmental gains resulting from the ban were “nonexistent at best,” and the ban likely did more harm than good. Consumers just switched from single plastic to double paper bags; few consumers remembered reusable totes, which caused delays in checkout; and recycling bins were hard to find or nonexistent.
Additionally, A recent microbiological study found unacceptably high levels of bacterial yeast, mold and fecal bacteria counts reside in the reusable bags (nastysack.com).
The study found that 64 percent of the reusable bags tested were contaminated with some level of bacteria, and close to 30 percent had elevated bacterial counts higher than what’s considered safe for drinking water. Further, 40 percent of the bags had yeast or mold, and some of the bags had an unacceptable presence of fecal intestinal bacteria when there should have been zero.
They are only now realizing that their low-carbon footprint bag is also filled with nasty bacteria if not washed regularly. A recent microbiological study found unacceptably high levels of bacterial yeast, mold and fecal bacteria counts reside in the reusable bags (nastysack.com).
Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. We hear this daily and see those orders nearly everywhere. Paper or plastic? Separate out your wet garbage and put it in another recyclable food bin. Separate bottles and cans. Compost.
Yet none of this has reduced landfills.
And banning plastic grocery bags does not reduce disposal and recycling costs, studies over the years have shown.
Yet California is banning plastic grocery bags entirely. And stupidly.
SB 270, a 2014 bill that was approved of by voters in 2016 as Proposition 67, banned all “one time use” plastic bags, and only allowed thicker plastic bags to be purchased in stores.
However, those thicker plastic bags are now also bad, and apparently now considered “single-use.” Lawmakers and the environmental lobby dubiously claim, “Single-use plastic bags are among the most insidious types of pollution and one of the most common items found on our beaches and waterways.”
Assembly Bill 2236 and Senate Bill 1053, authored by Assemblywoman Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-Orinda) and Senator Catherine Blakespear (D-Encinitas), propose to ban any kind of plastic bag at food stores and convenience stores. Both bills are an expansion of SB 270, which banned all “one time use” plastic bags, and only allowed thicker plastic bags to be purchased in stores.
Assemblywoman Bauer-Kahan and Senator Blakespear claimed studies found that most Californians were either not recycling those bags or were still using the thicker bags as one time only bags, despite being designed to be used multiple times. According to one state study cited by Blakespear, the amount of plastic shopping bags trashed per person grew from 8 pounds per year in 2014 to 11 pounds per year in 2021, despite the massive law change. Both lawmakers claim plastic bags are still causing environmental damage, and that a total ban is the only way to stop it. Some coastal cleanup surveys also found that volunteers have collected over 300,000 plastic grocery bags in the last three decades.
Only there are no links to those supposed studies. They also still claim many people dispose of plastic bags after just one or a few uses. Yet most people tell you they use plastic bags multiple times, for a myriad of uses.
Bauer-Kahan’s bill didn’t make the cut, but Blakespear’s SB 1053 was passed and signed into law by Gov. Newsom in 2024.
Eleven years ago in 2014, SB 270 by State Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima), and co-authored by Sen. President pro Tem Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles), and Sen. Ricardo Lara, (D-Los Angeles), banned the recyclable plastic bags and replaced them with heavier plastic bags, five times thicker. It has remained unclear how a significantly thicker plastic bag is better for the environment, other than the fact they can be used many more times than the flimsy plastic bags.
The California Legislature is stuck on stupid, and has been for a long time.
The environmental myths, exaggerations and misinformation that have been spread about plastic bags have led many to believe that plastic bags kill 100,000 sea mammals and one million seabirds each year. Each of the bill authors have used this emotional argument and trotted out the much-used photo of a turtle with plastic bag in its mouth as proof. Not only is the story about the turtle not true, The London Times exposed the dead sea mammals and seabirds as a myth based on a typographical error. The original report mentioned discarded fishing tackle including fishing nets, not plastic bags. David Santillo, a marine biologist at Greenpeace, told The Times: “It’s very unlikely that many animals are killed by plastic bags. The evidence shows just the opposite.”
Enforcing litter laws would go much further to helping the environment.
A California native and Navy mom, Katy lives in Sacramento, CA.
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How much are stores going to charge us now, for not providing a bag?
I can tell you one reason why (among many other reasons) “people” are using the thicker plastic bags for one-time use and not reusing them: they’re completely “free” for EBT people, while we have to pay for them, they pay nothing at all for as many as they want. So why would they care? Nothing changed for them since before the ban on the thinner plastic bags, they pay nothing either way. They just throw them out, and get more the next time they go to the store. This was a huge oversight when they passed this law. But, even if they charged EBT people for them, they just would use their EBT balance to buy them, either way the result is the same. We pay for them, they don’t.
I bought a huge box of 1000 black “t-shirt” plastic bags at Sam’s Club for a few dollars, just to bypass this insane government. I keep a small stash of them in my trunk and use them for groceries, afterwards, I use them for kitchen or bathroom trash and throw them away. I’m so sick and tired of this nanny state garbage here, it never seems to end. This week, gas prices hit a recent low in the USA, some stations back east were as low as $1.69/gal! But not here, we are screwed daily by Screwsome and there’s no sign of any relief in the near future. It sucks living here in so many ways, I wish we could go back to the 70s or 80s when it was (more or less) sane here. I really miss those days. Demorats spend their entire lives just dreaming up ways to make our lives harder, more inconvenient, and more expensive.
The lazy, fat EBT people need to go get job.
Exactly. Democranks are good and taking things away from us and banning things they don’t want us to have. They have nothing but made inflation worse, not better in this state. 100’s of businesses have left, including insurance companies and large corporations. Over 700,000 people have left this state and that number is rising. They banned paper bags, shut down many logging mills that helped the housing industry. They shut down
sawmills, wood processing plants, and now they are shutting down gas/diesel/oil/aviation fuel,/plastic refinery plants. They banned Glocks hand guns because criminals use them. They make you do background checks for ammo and firearms, and now will be barrels and triggers. Banning cars/trucks/semi trucks by 2035 is lunatic thinking. Banning lawnmowers, leaf blowers and chainsaws run on 25 horse engines is just pure stupidity lunatic thinking. They also banned the mechanics that work on them. Their latest tricks are to ban any Republicans from running for office. Tyrant Newsom released over 90,000 felons and violent felons onto our streets, and opened the borders to all kind of illegal criminals. Gov. Gavin Newsom and all the legislative dogs that follow him are lunatics and should be jailed for treason.
“Enforcing litter laws would go much further to helping the environment.” That might violate First Amendment Freedom of Speech. Throwing a plastic bag onto the ground is the disenfranchised’s way of telling off The Man!
I personally have been against plastic bags from day 1, and use paper bags for my kitchen trash bin. I always insist on paper bags at the market. So, now I’m gonna have to buy my own bags in bulk? And then when are they gonna ban those?
^^^ That’s NEXT YEAR’S swap-out, Paul… they change their minds, just to keep us guessing, poor and DISENFRANCHISED….
First off, never believe anything Democrats tell you. They lie through their teeth, and have zero credibility. Newsom, California Air Resources Board, California Coastal Commission, all corrupt.
For once I agree with Kalifornia. Billions of tons of those plastic bags wind up in rivers, oceans, and land fills. every year. Very few are recycled.
Let me know when it is torches and ax handle time. I’m in.
When this so called “law” was introduced years ago I started saving plastic bags out of spite. In addition to being a stupid law it was also a tax on shoppers to the tune of 10c a bag. Fast forward to today I have a lifetime supply of plastic bags which I will forever take into supermarkets as smugly as possible. If someone asks I’ll be happy to tell them that if you want your own bags then stop voting for democrats. This is going to be fun……….😀
With all the problems facing struggling Californians, how many of us clamored for this idiotic plastic bag legislation? Few to none?
Yet, two wealthy coastal Democrat lawyers like Assemblywoman Rebecca Bauer-Kahan and Senator Catherine Blakespear made banning plastic bag legislation their top priority and Hair-gel Hitler Newsom signed it into law.
Wealthy elitist Democrats like them probably they have everything delivered to their mansions so they don’t worry about carrying anything home in bags?
^^^ No, that’s what the SERVANTS are for… when do you think Newscum or the “First (Weinstein Trollop) Partner” ever set foot in a grocery store….
I for one don’t miss plastic bags blowing all over. It’s not that hard to keep a couple of reusable totes in my car for the groceries. I rinse them out maybe once a month and have never had a mold or bacteria problem. Easy Peasy! If I need a bag at the store I use the recyclable paper bag that is mostly from renewable resources and don’t mind spending the 10 cents. When people don’t use common sense the Democrats will come up with more laws, think about it.
We’ve been reusing the heavier plastic grocery bags and rarely see them blowing around. The paper bags hold fewer items, rip easily, and are useless in wet weather. We refuse to pay for paper bags. Democrats allow their huge voting block of WIN/SNAP customers to get their grocery bags for “free” courtesy of taxpayers.
“Eleven years ago in 2014, SB 270 by State Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima), and co-authored by Sen. President pro Tem Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles), and Sen. Ricardo Lara, (D-Los Angeles), banned the recyclable plastic bags and replaced them with heavier plastic bags, five times thicker. It has remained unclear how a significantly thicker plastic bag is better for the environment, other than the fact they can be used many more times than the flimsy plastic bags.”
^^^ THIS RIGHT HERE is PROOF that California has been LED (I use the term VERY loosely) but a CABAL OF ABSOLUTE IDIOTS and these three right here are amongst the BIGGEST IDIOTS on the California idiot roster….
Welcome to that idiot roster, Blakespeare and Bauer-Kahan (the latter gets an extra scoop of STUPID/IDIOCY for the hyphenated surname)….
HELP US PRESIDENT TRUMP – we’ve been taken hostage by a SHIP OF FOOLS…..
i still get free plastic bags in the produce department, lol. They don’t hold as much but work great for cleaning out the cat’s litter box…..
I went and bagged the maximum
The store rules would allow
Two store managers
Seven shoppers
And a greeter!
I use bags from the produce department. Or I buy my own @ Amazon. BUT, I do not give them the satisfaction of seeing me bag. I bag at my car so they have fewer carts inside. No doubt Amazon Fresh got a carve out. Everything is bagged. It is a thing of beauty in an ugly world!
First they came for my bags…
The thin plastic bags were great for picking up my dogs poop when I walk him. If the homeless used these plastic bags, you might be able to go swimming in the ocean after a rain storm.
At the store where I shop the recent plastic bags kept ripping. The clerk was going to toss them, defective. I asked her if I may have them because I use them at home. She gave them to me. I was also told they will have paper bags for 10 cents. What are they going to do in the produce and meat sections? With people bringing their own bags, they probably don’t wash them and if they do, now we are using more water to wash reusable cloth bags. The plastic bags are more sanitary.
The clerks have to bag groceries in some pretty grungy customer cloth bags. Our Sacramento elected democrats are morons.
What else is new! Another stupid law based on “feelings” and pearl clutching instead of facts. Typical liberal retards at work and as usual it will accomplish nothing but inconvenience and higher costs for everyone and will mostly be ignored by me and the general public at large.