Board Supports Legislation to Close Plastic Bag Ban Loophole

Los Angeles, CA—Today, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a motion by Supervisor Janice Hahn and co-authored by Chair Lindsey Horvath to throw the board’s support behind efforts in Sacramento to close an existing loophole in the statewide plastic bag ban.

A loophole in the 2014 California plastic bag ban exempted thicker plastic bags considered “reusable.” However, the vast majority of the thicker bags are used only once and are no longer considered recyclable, and the widespread use of them has led to Californians throwing away more pounds of plastic bags since the ban – not less. In 2014, when the ban was passed, Californians threw out roughly 315 million pounds of plastic bags. By 2022, Californians were throwing out 462 million pounds of plastic bags, a 47% increase.

“These thicker plastic bags may be called reusable, but most of us are only using them once,” said Supervisor Janice Hahn. “This loophole has undermined the state’s effort to reduce our use of single-use plastics and ironically made the problem worse. I appreciate Senator Ben Allen and his colleagues for taking this on and taking a stand against the plastics industry.”

The two pieces of legislation, Senate Bill 1053, authored by State Senators Ben Allen and Catherine Blakespear, and Assembly Bill 2236, authored by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, would require stores statewide to provide recycled paper bags or reusable bags that are non-film plastic.

Read full motion here: https://file.lacounty.gov/SDSInter/bos/supdocs/191185.pdf