A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
OK, Steve, at the grocery store, how do you answer the question, paper or plastic?
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Oh, well, first, I usually do self-checkouts, so I'm asking myself.
MARTÍNEZ: (Laughter).
INSKEEP: Second, I can't say that I care that much. I mean, if I have a choice, I'm going to do the paper. It's cool, but I do what I got to do. I take the bag that's there.
MARTÍNEZ: I just load them on my broad shoulders.
INSKEEP: (Laughter).
MARTÍNEZ: Here in California, Steve, we're about to become the first state in the country to ban all plastic bags from grocery stores at the checkout stands and in the produce section as well. Here's Lesley McClurg from member station KQED.
LESLEY MCCLURG, BYLINE: California has led on plastic bag bans since 2007, when the nation's first ban was enacted, as reported by CBS at the time.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #1: In San Francisco, those ubiquitous plastic shopping bags are being ordered to get out of town.
MCCLURG: Then in 2014, the entire state banned single-use plastic bags.
(SOUNDBITE OF SHOPPING CART RATTLING)
MCCLURG: But there was a loophole. Stores could still offer thicker plastic bags if they were reusable and recyclable.
(SOUNDBITE OF PLASTIC BAG RUSTLING)
MCCLURG: At a Safeway in Oakland, the checker doesn't even offer paper or plastic. The automatic assumption is just a plastic bag, one of those thick ones, but that won't be the case for very much longer.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
GAVIN NEWSOM: I signed a bill as it relates to plastic bags and a ban addressing loopholes.
MCCLURG: That's the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, referring to the carve-out that allowed stores to carry the heftier plastic bags. It backfired. Here's Mark Murray, executive director of Californians Against Waste.
MARK MURRAY: The thicker bags, because they were five, six, seven times thicker, they were generating more total plastic film waste than the old flimsier bags.
MCCLURG: So those thicker sacks are going away under the new law. Beginning in 2026, customers will have to bring their own bag or buy a paper bag.
MURRAY: That experience at the check stand is going to be very similar to my experience going to a grocery store in the 1970s, where it was paper only.
MCCLURG: And another California law will ensure there is less plastic throughout stores, too. Those flimsy plastic bags used for fruits and vegetables in the produce section must be replaced by compostable bags by the first of next year. Although research shows plastic bag bans do help the environment, other states like Minnesota are taking a different approach.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #2: The legislature passed a bill preempting cities and counties from banning bags.
MCCLURG: Some Republican lawmakers argue that certain cities need to be reined in, leading more than a dozen states to pass legislation outlawing municipalities from banning plastic bags.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JOHN KAVANAGH: For cost reasons, for convenience reasons and for business development reasons, it's best to keep it the way it is - choice.
MCCLURG: That's Arizona Republican State Senator John Kavanagh speaking on a local TV show.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
KAVANAGH: People can choose to use their own bag if they want to, or they can use the one in the store.
MCCLURG: According to World Counts, an advocacy organization, 160,000 plastic bags are consumed every second and only used for a few minutes before they're thrown away. And environmentalists say they don't break down in landfills and pollute oceans for hundreds of years. Allison Chan is the political director for Save The Bay, an environmental advocacy group.
ALLISON CHAN: When plastic bags enter a waterway, like a creek or a river, they get caught up in trees. You'll see them tangled in bushes and vegetation.
MCCLURG: She says cities around the Bay Area are tracking the trash that ends up in storm drains.
CHAN: And when they look at the before and after between when a plastic bag ban has been implemented and after that, what they see is that the trash volume reduces significantly.
MCCLURG: Data shows that bag bans eliminate about 300 single-use plastic bags per person annually.
For NPR News, I'm Lesley McClurg in San Francisco.
(SOUNDBITE OF DEAN BOWSER'S "THEORY") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.