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SHOPPERS will have to stock up on their reusable bags as a major change is coming to California.
Governor Gavin Newsom signed a new law banning plastic bags from stores like Target and Walmart.
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Starting on January 1, 2026, all plastic shopping bags will be banned at grocery stores.
This means the classic question of “paper or plastic” will no longer be asked at shopping centers like Sam’s Club and Kroger.
Consumers who don’t bring their own bags will be asked only if they want a paper bag to carry their items.
The law will affect bags at checkout, not the typical plastic bags that hold raw produce.
DECADE IN THE MAKING
The giant change comes after a decade of lawmakers trying to get rid of plastic bags.
A law in 2014 banned thin plastic shopping bags at stores but left a loophole as shoppers could still buy bags made with thicker plastic.
However, the thicker bags led to an increase in plastic bags getting thrown away because shoppers weren’t reusing or recycling them.
Laura Deehan, the director of Environment California, told KABC-TV that the bags created more waste.
“There was a sudden surge in these much thicker plastic bags,” said Deehan, whose group helped create the new measure.
“The grocery stores felt like they met the definition of a reusable plastic bag, but what we found is that they’re really not being reused at all.”
People went from throwing away eight pounds of plastic shopping bags on average in 2004 to 11 pounds per year by 2021, one study showed, according to KABC-TV.
Californians then supported the measure when it was put to a referendum in 2016.
Jenn Engstrom, of the California Public Interest Research Group, said the law “clearly needed a redo.”
“Plastic bags create pollution in our environment and break into microplastics that contaminate our drinking water and threaten our health,” Engstrom said, according to the Associated Press.
Does Target charge for bags?
Target automatically charges customers for bags in drive up and pickup orders.
The store charges $1 per every 10 bags used, meaning each plastic bag costs 10 cents.
“Charging bag fees for online pickup orders aligns with fees that were already in place for purchases made in Target stores at checkout,” Target shared on their site.
“If you’re purchasing from a store that charges bag fees, they’ll be applied to your order.”
If a customer uses less than 10 bags for their order, the amount is properly adjusted.
However, the rule depends on state and local laws as different stores have different bag policies.
Some locations only charge a five-cent fee for the bags while some spots charge five cents per bag at checkout in the store – and some don’t offer bags at all.
You can check how much you were charged for bags by viewing your order’s invoice through your Target account on Target.com or the app.
Target also allows customers to bring their own bags to avoid the automatic fee since they added bag preferences in March 2024.
If you order online for drive up or pickup at select stores, you can decline Target bags at checkout and tell the store you’ll be bringing your own bags to get your order.
“With the Governor’s signature, California has finally banned plastic bags in grocery checkout lanes once and for all.”
State lawmakers also amended the definition of a recyclable bag.
From 2028, only a bag that has been made with 50% recycled material will be classified as recyclable.
While environmentalists see the ban as a positive change, some online critics slammed Newsom for focusing on the law instead of the state’s issues of crime and homelessness.
“[He] could do more better things, then this, I mean come on,” one slammed on Facebook.
“We are dealing with more bigger problems than this too.”
“We keep tinkering around irrelevant laws and avoiding things that really matter,” another wrote.
CITIES WITHOUT PLASTIC BAGS
Newsom signed America’s first plastic bag ban as San Francisco’s mayor in 2007.
Now, hundreds of cities in 28 states have plastic bag bans in place.
Laws against plastic bags in Connecticut and Delaware were rolled out in 2021 and 2022.
Plastic bags have been banned in New York for over four years, with some exceptions.
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