Under Senate Bill 270, all Californians will no longer receive single-use plastic bags at grocery stores, drugstores and convenience stores. The state will effectively ban plastic bags for agricultural products in supermarkets after Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law a new bill, SB 1046, last September. California law requires producers who sell or distribute reusable grocery bags made of plastic film to be certified by an outside entity. Stores can only sell or distribute reusable grocery bags manufactured by producers certified by an external certification body to sell reusable grocery bags in California. The charge also offsets stores' costs of distributing paper bags, which can be two or more times more expensive than plastic bags.
It applies to single-use plastic, paper, or other take-away bags that are provided in stores and that do not meet legal standards for recycled paper or reusable grocery bags. Table 1 shows the requirements for reusable bags made of plastic film and those made of any other natural or synthetic fabric.
