The Problem with “Reusable” Plastic Bags

From production to disposal, plastic bag waste threatens the environment and our health.

Plastics are primarily made from fossil fuels, so producing plastic bags requires drilling for oil. Extracting and refining fossil fuels to make plastic bags releases toxic substances into the air, including known carcinogens and neurotoxins.

When plastics make it to a landfill, they do not biodegrade, but can leach toxic chemicals into the ground, damaging our soil quality and contaminating our groundwater. The plastic bags that don’t get to a landfill often end up littering the environment. As plastic breaks down in the environment, it breaks into smaller pieces called microplastics. Microplastics are now found nearly everywhere, from the top of Mt. Everest to the bottom of the Mariana Trench and even inside our bodies.

Californians know plastic bag waste is bad. That’s why the California State Legislature voted to ban plastic bags in 2014 with Senate Bill 270, and Californians defended that ban at the ballot box in 2016, winning by nearly 6 points.

Unfortunately, the law banning plastic bags allowed grocery stores to still provide plastic bags so long as they are recyclable and reusable. The plastic industry exploited the law and started mass-producing slightly thicker plastic bags that they claim are reusable and recyclable. But the reality is that most of these bags are not reused or recycled statewide. In fact, the Los Angeles Times reached out to municipal and city recycling centers around the state and was unable to find a single one that accepts them. CalRecyle even told The Times, “Plastic bags aren’t recycled on a large scale in California.”

In 2024, CALPIRG conducted a survey of the types of bags customers carry into and out of grocery stores. We conducted this survey at 13 stores in 6 California cities, surveying more than 530 grocery store patrons. We found that despite plastic bag producers’ advertising that their bags are reusable, few customers seem to be reusing these plastic bags at grocery stores.

Only about 2% of the observed patrons visibly carried plastic bags into the grocery store to use for their grocery shopping.

The survey data suggests that the intent of SB 270, to reduce plastic pollution, has been lost. Although the plastic industry advertises their bags as reusable up to 125 times (see photos below), our survey shows that few people are actually reusing them. Rather, these plastic bags are likely being thrown out after only one more use, often as trash can liners, or ending up immediately in our waste stream. According to state waste data, plastic bag waste by weight has soared to an all-time high. In 2021 alone, Californians threw away over 231,000 tons of plastic bags.

To address this issue, the legislature is considering two identical bills, Senate Bill 1053 and Assembly Bill 2236, that would fix this problem by banning the sale of plastic bags at grocery store checkout and allowing only recycled paper bags to be provided with a fee. With these bills, California has the power to amend the law to achieve what voters have indicated they wanted since 2016: plastic bag-free checkout lanes. Given that California is the most populous state in the nation, cutting plastic grocery bags in the state will significantly reduce the flow of plastic waste into our environment and curtail the need to create more plastic. Nothing that we use for a few minutes should pollute the environment for centuries.