SURPRISE! California’s Ban on Plastic Shopping Bags Has Backfired

 

Back in 2014, the state of California banned thin, disposable plastic shopping bags. They only allowed thicker, reusable plastic bags.

The problem, people still threw away the thicker bags. Now the weight of plastic bags being thrown away has increased by 30 percent.

As a result, the state now wants to ban all plastic bags completely.

The Los Angeles Times reports: 

California’s war on plastic bag use seems to have backfired. Lawmakers are trying again

It was a decade ago when California became the first state in the nation to ban single-use plastic bags, ushering in a wave of anti-plastic legislation from coast to coast.

But in the years after California seemingly kicked its plastic grocery sack habit, material recovery facilities and environmental activists noticed a peculiar trend: Plastic bag waste by weight was increasing to unprecedented levels.

According to a report by the consumer advocacy group CALPIRG, 157,385 tons of plastic bag waste was discarded in California the year the law was passed. By 2022, however, the tonnage of discarded plastic bags had skyrocketed to 231,072 — a 47% jump. Even accounting for an increase in population, the number rose from 4.08 tons per 1,000 people in 2014 to 5.89 tons per 1,000 people in 2022.

The problem, it turns out, was a section of the law that allowed grocery stores and large retailers to provide thicker, heavier-weight plastic bags to customers for the price of a dime.

People are fleeing California over taxes and crime and this is what they’re focused on?

Another green policy backfire:

California's plastic bag tax has increased the weight plastic bags thrown away by almost 30%.

Since bag taxes were enacted, plastic bags have been made thicker to qualify as being "reusable." 

But consumers discard them anyway.

So Californians… pic.twitter.com/cNGvGBw8hD

— Steve Milloy (@JunkScience) February 13, 2024

Name a problem Los Angeles democrats were able to solve.

That's right! Nothing.

— Department Of Injustice (@DepartmentOfIn7) February 12, 2024

Here’s a video report: