Mercury News: “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 week, 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. “This kind of plastic film is not recyclable. It’s a contaminant in almost any bin you put it into,” said Nick Lapis, director of advocacy for Californians Against Waste, an environmental group that supported the bill. “It flies around landfills and flies out of trucks. It gets stuck on gears at recycling facilities. And it contaminates compost. It’s a problematic product we want to get rid of.”

The bill, SB 1046, by Sen. Susan Talamantes Eggman, D-Stockton, passed the Legislature on a largely party-line vote, with most Democrats voting for it and most Republicans voting against it. The main opponent was the California Grocers Association. Nick Rose, a spokesman for the association, said Tuesday he had no comment on why the group opposed the bill…”