California Gov. Gavin Newsom signs law banning grocery stores from offering plastic bags

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — It’s official: California has banned plastic bags at the grocery store.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom over the weekend signed Senate Bill 1053 into law, which will enact the ban beginning Jan. 1, 2026. Under SB 1053, California grocery stores and retailers will have to offer recycled paper bags only after that.

Newsom did not include a signing message with the bill.

However, the decision has been hailed by a variety of environmental advocacy groups, including CALPIRG, Environment California and Oceana.

“The new ban on single-use plastic bags at grocery store checkouts solidifies California as a leader in tackling the global plastic pollution crisis. Plastic bags are one of the deadliest types of plastic to ocean wildlife. With an ocean-based economy valued at $45 billion annually, California is dependent on a clean coast,” said Christy Leavitt of Oceana in a statement.

Jenn Engstrom of CALPIRG said in a statement that while Californians voted to ban single-use plastic bags in the state almost a decade ago, “the law clearly needed a redo.”

“Plastic bags create pollution in our environment and break into microplastics that contaminate our drinking water and threaten our health,” Engstrom said.

Laura Deehan of Environment California added in a statement that this update will protect sea turtles, birds and other California wildlife.

“Nothing we use for a few minutes should pollute the environment for hundreds of years,” she said.

Voters banned single-use plastic bags nearly a decade ago, but they didn’t ban all bags. Multi-use bags were still allowed until now.

The bill was opposed by the plastics industry, whose group, the Recyclable Plastic Bag Alliance, said in a statement of opposition that the bill will likely lead to increased plastic use, “eliminate the use of 183 million pounds of recycled content in California each year, exacerbate our carbon footprint, and significantly raise costs for working families.”

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