California’s 2014 ban on thin plastic grocery bags caused more plastic bag waste, not less, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Breitbart News covered the fight over the plastic bag ban — the first by any state in the nation — in 2014, noting that the ban was a regressive tax on consumers that would benefit large grocery chains, who could charge ten cents per bag for heavier, government-approved plastic bags that were, in theory, more reusable than the thinner ones.
Ten years later, the amount of plastic bag waste per California resident has risen by almost 50%, the Journal notes:
Specifically, the weight of plastic bag waste per capita increased after the original ban was passed. Even a study called “Plastic Bag Bans Work,” done by environmental and public interest groups, features a table showing that the amount of plastic bags thrown away per 1,000 people in California rose from 4.08 tons in 2014 to 5.89 tons in 2021. The report blames this on a “loophole” in the law.
When the ban on thin, single-use plastic bags went into effect, shoppers were left with a choice between paper bags or heavier, multiuse plastic bags. But