For most grocery shoppers, they are as familiar as carts with wobbly wheels, aisles of cereal boxes and checkout stands full of juicy celebrity tabloids. But in California their days are numbered.
Big rolls of thin plastic bags, often used only once to hold fruit and vegetables, or to put around packages of meat — then tossed in the garbage soon after — are going the way of green stamps and manual cash registers.
Under a bill signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom late last month, California will become the first state in the nation to phase out single-use plastic produce bags in supermarkets. The bags, called “pre-checkout bags” in grocery store lingo, must be replaced no later than Jan. 1, 2025 with recycled paper bags, or bags made of compostable plastic.
