September 23, 2024

Environment

Newsweek -  If you're planning on going grocery shopping in California, best to take your own bag. That's the implied message from state governor, Gavin Newsom, who announced that from 2026, plastic bags will be banned at all grocery store checkout lines. Instead, they will only offer paper ones.

This decision marks a significant development in California's ongoing battle against plastic pollution, and expands on previous measures that restricted thinner plastic bags but allowed the sale of thicker ones marketed as reusable and recyclable.

State Sen. Catherine Blakespear, a vocal advocate for the law, highlighted the shortcomings of earlier regulations, pointing toward a troubling trend: the amount of plastic bags discarded per person surged from 8 pounds in 2004 to 11 pounds in 2021. "We are literally choking our planet with plastic waste," she said, emphasizing the urgency of addressing the environmental impact of plastic.

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